MolaKule
Staff member
quote:
Iran Says Pilotless U.S. Jets Are Spying on Nuclear Sites
New York Times 02/17/05
author: Nazila Fathi
c. 2005 New York Times Company
TEHRAN, Feb. 16 - Iran said Wednesday that American pilotless spy planes had been seen over its nuclear sites and threatened to shoot them down if they came within range.
Information Minister Ali Yunessi, speaking after a meeting with members of Parliament, said the American spying over Iran had been going on for "a long time."
"Most of the shining objects that our people see in Iran's airspace are American spying equipment used to spy on Iran's nuclear and military facilities," Mr. Yunessi said on state television. "If any of the bright objects come close, they will definitely meet our fire and will be shot down," he said. "We possess the necessary equipment to confront them."
Iran's Foreign Ministry would not comment on Sunday on a Washington Post report that American pilotless planes had been flying over Iran for nearly a year, looking for evidence of a nuclear weapons program. "I cannot make comments about it," said the spokesman for the ministry, Hamid Reza Assefi. "The subject is related to the security and information apparatus."
The White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, asked about the reports on Monday, said he could not confirm or deny "matters related to intelligence." Questioned again by reporters on Wednesday, Mr. McClellan said he had nothing to add.
The issue adds to rising concern in Iran over possible United States surveillance operations in the country. A report last month in The New Yorker contended that American commandos had been operating in Iran since last summer. The Iranian authorities rejected the report, saying it was part of "psychological warfare against Iran."
Also on Wednesday, explosions in southern Iran that were later said to be from construction work, jolted world financial markets, causing stocks to briefly fall. The jitters arose over concern that the blasts could have come from missile fire aimed at Iran's nuclear site in Bushehr, a southern port.
But Iran dismissed those reports, with the leader of the policy making Supreme National Security Council, Ali Aghamohammadi, saying "the explosion was caused by blasts during work at Kossar dam." State television had reported that the explosion was caused by a fuel tank that fell from an aircraft.
The explosion was heard at 10 a.m. local time in Deylam, a southern port city about 130 miles west of the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
The comments on Wednesday on the pilotless planes followed reports in April in Iranian newspapers that U.F.O.'s had been seen by people in several parts of the country, but mostly in the north and northwest, the locations of Iran's nuclear sites. A reporter for the state-run news agency IRNA said he had seen a similar object over Bilesavar in the north for 90 minutes.
But the news media reported then that military and civilian radar had not registered any violations into Iran's airspace and the defense and foreign ministries dismissed suggestions that the objects were American pilotless planes, emphasizing that nothing could penetrate Iranian skies without being tracked.
Later in the year, the authorities acknowledged the possibility that surveillance aircraft could be operating over Iran. In December 2004, the daily Ressalat reported that Iran's air force had been ordered to shoot down any suspicious flying object near its nuclear facilities.
Iran Asserts Right to Defend Itself
By The New York Times
LONDON, Feb. 16 - Iran seeks stability in the Middle East and greater interaction with the rest of the world, but it is prepared to defend itself in the event of an attack, the Iranian ambassador to Britain said Wednesday evening.
"Any reasonable man would take these kind of threats quite seriously and plan accordingly," Ambassador Mohammad Hossein Adeli said. "Anyone who is attacked would deploy their own capabilities to defend themselves."
"We hope this would not happen," he added "and we are not for fighting or for destabilizing the region." He spoke at a news conference here and later at a dinner with reporters.
Iran's nuclear buildup is strictly for energy purposes, he repeated. "It is our responsibility to reassure the world community that our nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, and is not going to be diverted for nuclear weapons."
He said Iran's energy consumption would soon reach 1.7 million barrels of oil a day, an amount it could not take from domestic supplies without crippling export profits.
He expressed frustration at poor relations with the United States, and hope that Europe could play a stabilizing role. He also criticized what he called America's failure to recognize Iran's importance to peace in the Middle East and the world.
