It is hardly surprising that Tehran has dismissed the call by US president Barack Obama for the return of the stealth drone which Iran captured nearly three weeks ago as the aircraft flew high over Iranian territory. Iran not only turned down the request but warned of a sharp response if the US again violates the country’s airspace with the aim of spying on sensitive defence and nuclear facilities.
The downing of the drone was a major coup for the Iranians. On the technical level, they apparently seized the drone by over-riding its electronics, demonstrating that they have the equipment and skills needed to carry out such an operation. Washington now knows they could use this expertise to bring down other drones of the same type and will think twice about sending others on missions over Iranian territory.
The drone in Iran’s possession has not, reportedly, been seriously damaged and can provide Iranian technicians with information on how such unmanned aircraft work. The Iranians have said that China and Russia have asked to inspect the drone. Beijing and Moscow are keen to not only acquire US technology but also to produce counter-measures against such drones.
On the political level, Iran touted the capture of the drone as a propaganda victory over the US at a time the Obama administration has been trying to step-up pressure on Tehran to suspend its nuclear programme, which the US claims is designed to produce bombs but Iran insists has only peaceful objectives.
The deployment of the drone during the Obama’s presidency reveals that he shares the hostile attitude toward the Islamic Republic adopted by the previous Bush administration which led the US into two disastrous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Obama has been exposed as just as hawkish on Iran as George W Bush who was the most internationally reviled US president.
Neoconservatives, who advocate military action against Iran, are promulgating the dangerous line that Tehran’s seizure of the drone over its territory amounts to a ‘provocation’ of the US.
The captured drone has been identified as an RQ-170 Sentinal, a boomerang-shaped unmanned aircraft deployed by the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Space Agency. The Sentinal, armed and provided with hi-tech cameras and monitoring equipment, can hover for hours at a height of about 17 km from the earth’s surface. The Sentinal was used to gather intelligence for the deadly raid on Usama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.
In an article circulated by Agence Global, US analyst Robert Dreyfuss observed that “the worrisome part of (the drone’s deployment)...is the idea that the United States is escalating its covert war against Iran and, indeed, preparing to use the ‘military option.’”
Thus far, the undeclared US stealth offensive against Iran - waged in concert with Israel - seems to have involved introducing viruses into computers working in the nuclear programme, kidnappings and assassinations of Iranian scientists and an explosion that destroyed a rocket base west of Tehran last month and killed a general in charge of Iran’s missile programme.
Iran may have retaliated by intercepting the drone, almost certainly not the first to enter the country's skies, and setting off a bomb outside the British embassy in Bahrain.
Trita Parsi, president of the Washington-based National Iranian American Council, argued the tit-for-tat actions reveal that the US could already be at war with Iran and warned that the US and Israel could use Iranian responses as a pretext to launch an all-out offensive against Iran.
Clearly concerned over the possibility of conflict, Shaikh Muhammad bin Rashid al-Maktoum, vice president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and ruler of Dubai, recently rejected the notion that Iran poses a nuclear threat and said that if Tehran were to launch an attack on Israel, which is known to possess at least 200 nuclear devices, Iran’s cities would be devastated.
He observed that a nuclear weapon would hardly be of use to Iran and insisted that Iran is not currently building one. His comments seem to put some distance between the UAE and the policy adopted by Saudi Arabia - Iran’s chief rival in West Asia and the Muslim world - which has aligned itself totally with the US on this issue.
The danger of war is increasing rather than receding. Neoconservative hardliners in the US can be expected to step-up pressure on Obama during the presidential election campaign.
In addition to stealth warfare, he has toughened economic sanctions. US experts say this campaign could drive Iran to build nuclear weaponry. The greater the challenge the greater the likelihood that Tehran could feel it needs nuclear bombs to deter the US and Israel from attacking the country with the aim of effecting regime change.