Iran has drones more advanced than Hezbollah’s, defense minister says
A picture released by Iranian Defence Ministry on May 23, 2011 shows Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi viewing the mass production of a ballistic surface-to-surface Qiam missile, entirely designed and built domestically and delivered to the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps air force.
Iran's defense minister Ahmad Vahidi said Sunday that the country has drone technology far more advanced than what Hezbollah sent into Israeli airspace earlier this month.
"Definitely, the drone which recently flew over the occupied lands (Israel) and astonished the world was not the product of Iran's latest technology," Vahidi said, according to Fars News Agency.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran is now in possession of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with much more advanced technology than that of the drone which was flown in the sky of the occupied territories by Hezbollah forces," he added.
Vahidi was referring to the drone Israel shot down a drone after it flew 25 miles into its airspace October 6, Reuters reported. Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group, said the drone was fired by them, with parts built in Iran and assembled in Lebanon.
More from GlobalPost: Are Iran's drones coordinating attacks in Syria?
Also on Sunday, Muhammed Mogdam, the former deputy commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, said that the Hezbollah drone was copied from technology recovered from an American ”Sentinel” UAV that was downed in Iran last December, the Times of Israel reported.
However, Brig. Gen. Asaf Agmon, the managing director of the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies, denied Mogdam's claims.
“There is no connection whatsoever between what fell over there and the technology they possess,” Agmon said. ”The two are as distant as east and west.”
Though the Iranian military frequently announces their technological and strategic developments, some analysts are "skeptical of the reliability" of these reports, including Sunday's, Reuters reported.
More from GlobalPost: Hezbollah acknowledges sending drone over Israel
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