The Emirati charge d’affaires in Tehran went to the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Saturday to receive Iran’s strong protest against the intrusion of the US spy drone into the Iranian airspace after taking off from an American military base in the UAE.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran disapproves of provision of (military) facilities for foreign forces for the purpose of any aggression against the Iranian sea, ground and air frontiers,” director of the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s department of Persian Gulf affairs said.
The Iranian diplomat also reminded the UAE that countries cannot shirk responsibility in such cases.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force shot down the US unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that intruded into the airspace of Iran on Thursday morning.
The IRGC said the ‘Global Hawk’ spy drone had taken off from a US military base in south of the Persian Gulf at 19:44 GMT on Wednesday (00:14 am local time on Thursday), switched off all of its communication systems, and flew towards the port city of Chabahar via the Strait of Hormuz in maximum stealth.
When flying back to the western part of the region, the unmanned plane violated the Iranian airspace near the Strait of Hormuz and began to spy on Iran and collect information, the statement added.
The IRGC Aerospace Force’s air defense unit shot down the intruding drone in Iran’s airspace at 23:35 GMT, it noted.
The intruding drone was reportedly shot by Iran’s homegrown air defense missile system “Khordad-3rd”.