Iran Says It Sent 6 Drones at US Radar, Slams IAEA
(MENAFN) Iran escalated its confrontation with the West on Sunday, as its military said it launched a six-drone strike on a US radar installation in Bahrain and its top diplomatic spokesman accused the UN nuclear watchdog of bowing to Washington and European capitals.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei charged that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had been swayed by the United States and European countries. Speaking at a news briefing in Tehran, reported by a semi-official news agency, Baqaei said: “Beyond this formal damage, the agency’s insistence on one-sided and biased reporting about Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, which is caused by the political approaches of some of its managers and the influence of the US and European countries, has caused an irreparable blow to the technical and international credibility of this institution,”
Baqaei also turned on Washington, saying it was guilty of “emptying the concept of diplomacy and negotiation from its true meaning.”
His remarks followed a claim by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that it had struck a US early-warning radar system at al-Riffa Air Base in Bahrain using six drones.
Bahrain’s Defense Force said its air defenses intercepted and destroyed several Iranian aerial attacks. It accused Tehran of pursuing a “systematic hostile approach.”
The flare-up comes as Iran and the United States remain at odds over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical channel for global energy and commodity supplies.
Regional instability has surged since the US and Israel attacked Iran in February, prompting Iranian retaliatory strikes on several countries in the region. A ceasefire took hold in April, but fighting resumed in July after negotiations stalled, even though both sides had signed a memorandum of understanding a month earlier aimed at resolving the conflict.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei charged that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had been swayed by the United States and European countries. Speaking at a news briefing in Tehran, reported by a semi-official news agency, Baqaei said: “Beyond this formal damage, the agency’s insistence on one-sided and biased reporting about Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, which is caused by the political approaches of some of its managers and the influence of the US and European countries, has caused an irreparable blow to the technical and international credibility of this institution,”
Baqaei also turned on Washington, saying it was guilty of “emptying the concept of diplomacy and negotiation from its true meaning.”
His remarks followed a claim by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that it had struck a US early-warning radar system at al-Riffa Air Base in Bahrain using six drones.
Bahrain’s Defense Force said its air defenses intercepted and destroyed several Iranian aerial attacks. It accused Tehran of pursuing a “systematic hostile approach.”
The flare-up comes as Iran and the United States remain at odds over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical channel for global energy and commodity supplies.
Regional instability has surged since the US and Israel attacked Iran in February, prompting Iranian retaliatory strikes on several countries in the region. A ceasefire took hold in April, but fighting resumed in July after negotiations stalled, even though both sides had signed a memorandum of understanding a month earlier aimed at resolving the conflict.
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