Iran expressed the opinion today that a US operation to rescue a pilot may have served as a cover for "theft of enriched uranium", indicating that there are "many unclear moments" surrounding the operation, reported Agence France-Presse, quoted by BTA.
US President Donald Trump announced yesterday that the co-pilot of the plane that crashed two days earlier in Iran and that Tehran claims to have shot down was rescued during a "courageous" military operation.
The Iranian side stated that the army had "thwarted" the operation, without however categorically denying the rescue of the pilot.
The spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmail Baghai, said today that there were "many questionable and unclear moments" about the operation.
"The area where the American pilot was reported to be in Kohgiluyeh and Buyer Ahmad provinces is very far from the area where the American forces tried to land in central Iran," the spokesman said during his weekly press conference.
"The possibility of a covert operation to steal enriched uranium should not be ruled out in any way," he added.
In particular, a uranium processing plant in Yazd province is located in central Iran, AFP noted.
Bagaei described the rescue operation as a "disaster" for Washington, and the Iranian military claimed that its forces destroyed two "Black Hawk" helicopters and two C-130 military transport planes.
According to the Iranian military, the military planes were fired upon, forcing them to "make an emergency landing in Isfahan province."
The US military then "massively bombed the downed planes," the Iranian military said in a statement broadcast on state television.
According to US media, two of the planes that were supposed to return the pilot and his rescuers to safety became stranded at an isolated base in Iran and had to be destroyed to prevent them from falling into the hands of Iranian forces.