Obama Says U.S. Has Demanded Iran Return Drone

December 12, 2011

President Barack Obama says the United States has asked Iran to return a U.S. drone that Tehran said it brought down while overflying its territory.

"With respect to the drone inside of Iran, I am not going to comment on intelligence matters that are classified," Obama said at a news conference in Washington alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. "As has already been indicated, we have asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond."

In remarks broadcast on December 11, a senior commander from Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, General Hossein Salami, said his country would not return the surveillance aircraft.

Iranian television on December 8 broadcast footage of Iranian military officials inspecting what they identified as a RQ-170 Sentinel drone, which they said was detected in Iranian airspace some 225 kilometers from the border with Afghanistan.

compiled from agency reports

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/obama_us_demanded_return_of_drone_iran/24419859.html

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