U.S. Drone in Iran’s Possession

Local/US/World

U.S. Drone in Iran’s Possession

Ben Farynowski - December 20, 2011

U.S. spy plane containing U.S intelligence “taken down” by Iranian Government.

In early December of 2011 the Iranian military downed a RQ-170 unmanned stealth aircraft that belonged to the United States one hundred forty miles away from the border of eastern Iran after finding recognizing that it was in restricted airways. The drone consisted of intelligence about surrounding communities and military personnel stationed in Afghanistan.

President of the United States, Barack Obama, on Monday December 12, 2011 said that the United States has asked Iran to return the drone aircraft that Iran claims it recently brought down in Iranian territory.

"We've asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond," Obama said. Due to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments on Venezuelan TV (VTV), it seems like the attitude of the Iranian President is that Iran will not be returning the aircraft any time soon.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said on Saturday December 17, 2011 that the fate of the downed U.S. spy drone would be decided by Iran, rejecting again the U.S. request for returning the drone.

In a final attempt to recover the drone, U.S. President Barack Obama demanded Iran to hand back the drone, but Iran rejected the request again, insisting that the aircraft was now "Iran's property."

Foreign Minister Salehi made on thing very clear, this act of “invasion” will not be tolerated. Iran is ready to defend their rights as a country and have already sent a letter of protest to the United Nations, the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation and the Non-Aligned Movement.

The U.S. says that the objective of the plan was not to spy on Iran, it was on another mission and due to technical malfunctions the drone ended up over Iran and had to land. Iran denies this story and says they electronically took control the aircraft and landed it themselves.

The United States of America’s story was later proved by American officials that said “the U.S. intelligence assessments indicated that Iran neither shot the drone down, nor used electronic or cybertechnology to force it from the sky. They contend the drone malfunctioned,” stated on CNN.com by CNN Wire Staff.

On top of all of the protests set fourth by Iran, they have also reached out to neighboring countries, requesting that the surrounding countries don’t allow U.S. air vehicles in that will be used against Iran.

“The U.S. should know that what it did regarding violation of our air space can put international peace and security in danger," Ahmadinejad said. "The U.S. should take responsibility for the consequences of the measure.” (CNN)

The majority of the community of Iran agrees on one thing, one way or another, Iran deserves a apology for this incident. It is a violation of the rights that Iran has for begin a country.

The U.S. military still denies that the drone shot down in Iran was one of theirs. A spokesmen from the U.S. military stated that The U.S. military is missing a drone and has not been recovered yet, but that doesn’t mean it is the one found in Iran.

What all started this was a report last month by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The contents of the report consisted of pointing out some incriminating and questionable areas of the Iranian’s Nuclear Program. A summary of the report is that, supposedly Iran was secretly working on a new nuclear weapon.

This is now a worldwide issue that has everybody talking. There are many people who have strong arguments for both sides. For now though Iran had possession of the aircraft and has no intention of returning it to the United States of America.