IAEA studying Iran letter on Israel drone incursion: Official
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is “studying” the content of Iran’s letter to the agency about the Israeli regime’s recent drone incursion into Iran’s airspace to spy over a nuclear facility in central Iran.
IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said the UN agency had circulated the Iranian letter to all member states as requested by Tehran.
In a letter addressed to IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano on September 9, Iran’s Ambassador to the agency Reza Najafi called on the UN nuclear body to condemn the Israeli move to violate the Islamic Republic’s airspace.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran…calls on the IAEA to condemn this [act of] aggression which violates the agency’s Statute and the resolutions [passed] by its policymaking bodies,” Najafi wrote in his letter.
The letter was referring to the August 23 attempt by the Israeli regime to spy on Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility with an unmanned aerial vehicle, which was shot down by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) forces.
The stealth spy drone was targeted by a surface-to-air missile before it reached the strategic location.
Iran’s nuclear facilities have been a regular target for espionage activities by US and Israeli secret services, which have at times used drones for this purpose. However, all efforts made to this end have been successfully thwarted by the Iranian military forces.
On December 4, 2011, the Iranian military’s electronic warfare unit announced that it had successfully taken control of and landed an American RQ-170 reconnaissance and spy drone in the eastern part of Iran with minimal damage.