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TEHRAN: Iran on Tuesday scoffed at US President Barack Obama’s request for it to return a sophisticated US drone, with a foreign ministry spokesman stressing the aircraft violated Iranian airspace.
“It seem he (Obama) has forgotten that Iran’s airspace was violated, spying operations were undertaken, international laws were violated and that Iran’s internal affairs were interfered with,” spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in his regular media briefing, according to Fars news agency.
“Instead of an official apology and admitting to this violation, they are making this request,” he said.
Obama on Monday acknowledged that Iran was holding the reconnaissance drone -- a bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel -- by saying: “We’ve asked for it back. We’ll see how the Iranians respond.” Iran last week displayed what it said was the drone on state television.
Officials claimed a Revolutionary Guards cyber-warfare unit had hacked the aircraft’s controls and brought it down.
US officials have indicated it was more likely the drone suffered a malfunction while on a CIA spying mission over the Islamic republic when it was captured.
The head of Iran’s parliamentary national security committee, Parviz Sorouri, said on Monday that Iran was in the “final stages” of unlocking the drone’s software and “our next action will be to reverse-engineer the aircraft.”
