Iran said Sunday it would keep a captured US drone, rather than return it, but also indicated willingness to reach a deal. "We will keep the US spying drone and examine and analyse it, to see to what extent it could increase our technological know-how," said the deputy commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).
"The US can however compensate this aggressive move by some correct (political) measures," General Hossein Salami added. Salami did not give further details on how the US could compensate what Iran considers to be a hostile and aggressive act against the country's territorial sovereignty.
Tehran says that it shot down the US drone earlier this month when it was flying over Iranian territory, while Nato has said that an unarmed aircraft had gone missing during a mission over western Afghanistan.
"It makes no difference where the drone came from, the fact is that no country would welcome having a spying drone in its airspace," the deputy IRGC commander was quoted by Fars news agency as saying.
"Furthermore, the drone did not even belong to the US defence ministry but to the US intelligence service," the general said. The IRGC says that the RQ-170 drone was on a spying mission in Iran and was brought down by the IRGC cyber division - rather than simply being found - near the city of Kashmar, some 200 kilometres from the Afghan border.
"We ourselves are second in the world in drone technology and know quite well how these drones work and what for," Salami said.