Iran has data transmitted by Hezbollah drone about ‘sensitive Israeli bases

Iran is in possession of data transmitted by an unmanned Hezbollah drone that overflew “restricted” sites and bases in Israel this month, a defense official said.

The drone “transmitted live data, photographing sensitive Israeli bases,” chair of the Iranian parliament’s defense commission, Esmaeel Kosari, told Iran’s Arabic-language al-Alam television.

“The photos of restricted areas are in Iran’s possession,” he said in an interview broadcast on Sunday night.

Israel’s air force on Oct. 6 shot down the unarmed drone over the Negev desert after it entered the country’s airspace from the Mediterranean Sea.

At the time the Israeli military dispelled the notion the drone might have been launched from the Gaza Strip, and was looking into the possibility Hezbollah militants may have dispatched it.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah boasted on Oct. 11 that his Shiite group sent the drone over Israel, saying the device was “Iranian built and assembled in Lebanon.”

“It overflew sensitive and important installations for dozens of kilometers until the enemy spotted it near (the nuclear site) Dimona,” Nasrallah said without identifying the installations.

Iran confirmed Nasrallah’s claim, and scoffed at Israel’s air defenses.

Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said the drone flight “shattered everything that was said about the Iron Dome system” – Israel’s air defense shield.

Speaking to al-Alam on Sunday, Kosari also echoed a claim by Vahidi earlier in the day that Iran had more advanced drone than the one Hezbollah used.

“Iran currently possesses unmanned aircraft which have more advanced technology than the drone that Hezbollah forces recently flew over the Zionist regime’s airspace,” Vahidi told reporters on Sunday.

Iran regularly boasts about advances in military and scientific fields, but in most cases fails to provide proof they were ever carried out. Western military experts regularly cast doubt on its claims.

Vahidi meanwhile rejected a notion that draconian economic sanctions against Tehran’s disputed nuclear program had affected the military and its advances.

“Unfair Western sanctions have no effect on boosting the defense and deterrent prowess of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said.

Source: Alarabiya

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