Iran says Israeli drone which shot down in Natanz came from north, old soviet country & Report Clai - Polidicks

[QUOTE]An Iranian general said Wednesday that a purported Israeli drone shot down near a nuclear facility in the Islamic Republic flew in from a northern country that once was part of the Soviet Union. There are three former Soviet republics immediately north of Iran: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Iran in the past had criticized Azerbaijan for its close ties with Israel and the country does operate drones like the one Iran said it shot down. On Sunday, Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said it shot down the purported Israeli drone near the country's uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, some 240 kilometers (150 miles) south of the capital, Tehran. State television aired footage of the purported drone Monday and identified it as a Hermes 450 drone, which is manufactured in Israel. Israel and Azerbaijan signed a [URL="http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-to-sell-weapons-to-azerbaijan/"]$1.4 billion defense deal[/URL] in February 2012 which focused on drones and missile defense systems. Iranian Press-TV reported that Israeli satellites were being used in conjunction with the drones to run surveillance along the Iranian border. Israeli officials have not commented on the incident. In March of that year Azerbaijan officials denied a report in Foreign Policy Magazine that Israel was granted access to the airbases in the Caucasus nation, raising the fears of US officials at the time that Israel was readying an attack on Iran. Azerbaijan is located on Iran’s northern border. Fars quoted Jazayeri as saying Iran's response will not be limited to shooting down the drone. "We will respond to the enemy in the occupied lands," he said, without elaborating. [/QUOTE] [IMG]http://www.israelnationalnews.com/static/Resizer.ashx/news/468/282/394601.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2014/08/Mideast-Iran-Israel-D_Horo-635x357.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/24/article-2733139-20C3C46C00000578-544_634x452.jpg[/IMG] [URL="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iran-purported-israeli-drone-north-25143016"]Source1[/URL] [URL="http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-says-purported-israeli-drone-came-from-north/"]Source2[/URL] [QUOTE]Yet another Israeli drone has been reported downed – this time in Iraq. According to a report on the Lebanese [I]Al Mayadeen [/I]TV channel, considered a mouthpiece for the Hezbollah terror group, an Israeli drone exploded in mid-air over Baghdad. The report claims that the drone was another Hermes-class craft, the same type of drone that Iran claims fell over its airspace earlier this week. The report said that Iraqi army officials had gathered up what was left of the drone, but were not commenting on the incident at this time. A reporter on the ground in Baghdad said that staff from the US Embassy in Baghdad rushed to the scene of the crash in order to assess the situation Hermes UAVs are produced by Israel, but are also used by several western states and by Iran's neighbors, Azerbaijan. As such, it is far from clear which, if any, of the downed drones were in fact employed by Israel. [/QUOTE] [URL="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/184508#.U_7ny2M64x8"]Source3[/URL]

The [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbit_Hermes_450"]Hermes[/URL] line of UAVs is pretty popular and has been sold to a lot of countries, including Azerbijan themselves, the UK and even the US. Even if it is a Hermes it doesn't necessarily mean it's an Israeli one. I doubt anyone would own up to it anyway.

Azerbaijan backed by Israel and Turkey and Armenia backed by Iran and Russia, fighting over that Nagorno Karabakh has the potential to be another flashpoint I think.

If they really were Israeli, I don't blame them. They're probably monitoring the northern situation because the last thing they wanna do is be fighting say IS on their north while wrapping up things in Gaza

Meanwhile, American UAVs are probably swiggidying into Russian airspace right now to monitor the Ukraine situation.