Iran is used to America trying to drag it by the ears before the United Nations for a sound scolding. With a crashed American spy drone in hand, Iran's now trying to turn the tables, hoping to spin the captured aircraft into a diplomatic, technological and propaganda advantage. The siege mentality long cultivated by the Tehran regime just got an unmanned assist.
On Thursday, Iran sent a sternly-worded letter to United Nations officials protesting the drone's violation of its airspace. The letter, sent by Iran's U.N. ambassador Mohammad Khazaee, calls the drone overflight "tantamount to an act of hostility" -- one that Iran reserves the right to respond to. Khazaee demands the global body take "clear and effective measures" against U.S. "aggression."
Though the crashed spy drone has been a P.R. windfall for Iran, it's ramping up the theocracy's siege mentality. Tehran's now putting the blame on Israel and the United States for the brief outage that affected its propaganda site Press TV on Thursday shortly after the alleged drone video was released. The outlet claims the two countries attempted a "cyber attack" on the website, allegedly related to its carrying footage of the stealth aircraft.
Iran like to paints itself as a hapless innocent victimized by drones. But that's baldly hypocritical, considering Iran's own history of Middle Eastern drone incursions. It wasn't too long ago that Iran sent its own Ababil-3 surveillance drone over the border into Iraq. In 2006, Iran's proxy, Hezbollah, flew Iranian drones across the Lebanese border into Israel.
Then there's Iran's broader regional meddling. Iran has caused trouble for neighbors by smuggling armor-piercing bombs like Explosively Formed Projectiles into Iraq. It's also heightened neighborhood tensions by sneaking rockets for use against Israel to its Hamas allies in Gaza and Hezbollah pals in Lebanon.
But Iran doesn't often let inconsistency interrupt its aggrieved chest thumping. On the Tehran University campus Friday, acting Friday Prayers Leader Kazzem Sediqi pledged that Iran's military would retaliate against the United States for its unmanned incursion. "They give such a response to any aggressor that it will make them regret their aggression," he said.
Far from just talking up America's drone and its sins, Iran's also tinkering with it. On Thursday, it disclaimed any interest in using the (alleged) RQ-170's technology for its own drone program, saying the stealth drone it allegedly made two years ago works just fine without any help, thank you very much. Regardless, Press TV claims Iran will crack open the drone it swears is the "Beast of Kandahar" for what it calls "reverse engineering."
Fars News, another official mouthpiece, is bragging that their drone score has already "provided Tehran's military forces with valuable intelligence data and information."
Photo: via David Cenciotto
