Iran plays down U.S. naval moves

Tehran, Iran - Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Saturday that it considered the likely return of the U.S. warships to the Gulf part of routine activity, backing away from previous warnings to Washington not to re-enter the area.

The statement may be seen as an effort to reduce tensions after Washington said it would respond if Iran made good on a threat to block the Strait of Hormuz - the vital shipping lane for oil exports from the Gulf.

"U.S. warships and military forces have been in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East region for many years and their decision in relation to the dispatch of a new warship is not a new issue and it should be interpreted as part of their permanent presence," Revolutionary Guard Deputy Commander Hossein Salami told the official IRNA news agency.

The apparently conciliatory comments may be a response to the European Union and Washington's rejection of Iran's declaration it was close to resuming negotiations with world powers and with the Pentagon saying it did not expect any challenge to its warships.

Crude prices have spiked several times this year on fears that diplomatic tensions could escalate to military clashes as well as uncertainty about the effect of sanctions on the oil market.

Along with the EU, which is set to agree an embargo on Iranian oil next week, Washington hopes the sanctions will force Iran to suspend the nuclear activities it believes are aimed at making an atom bomb, which a charge Tehran denies.

There has been no U.S. aircraft carrier in the Gulf since the USS John C. Stennis left at the end of December at a time when the Revolutionary Guard was conducting naval maneuvers.

On January 3, after U.S. President Barack Obama signed new sanctions aimed at stopping Iran's oil exports, Tehran told the Stennis not to return - an order interpreted by some observers in Iran and Washington as a blanket threat to any U.S. carriers.

"I recommend and emphasize to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf," Iran's army chief, Major General Ataollah Salehi, said at the time. "We are not in the habit of warning more than once."

New Maneuvers

Washington says it will return to the Gulf and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said any move to block Hormuz - through which around a third of the world's sea-borne traded oil passes - would be seen as a "red line," requiring a response.

Citing operational security, the Pentagon will not say when the next carrier will return to the Gulf but officials say it is only a matter of time and they do not expect any problems.

In the coming days or weeks, the Revolutionary Guard will begin new naval exercises in the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf. Salami told IRNA these would go ahead as planned in the Iranian month of Bahman which runs from January 21 to February 19.

Iran has said it is ready to return to talks with world powers that stalled one year ago, but the West, concerned about Tehran's move of the most sensitive atomic work to a bomb-proof bunker, says it must first see a willingness from Tehran to address the nuclear issue.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday "time is running out" for a diplomatic solution and urged Russia and China to drop their opposition to sanctions on Iranian oil.

Iran is OPEC's (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) second biggest exporter and blocking its crude exports through the EU embargo or U.S. moves to punish banks that trade with Iran could have a devastating impact on its economy but there are no signs so far that such pressure would force it to stop what it calls its peaceful nuclear rights.

Iran nuclear scientist assassinated!

Iran blamed the U.S. and Israel for the assassination of a university professor and scientist who played a key role in the country's controversial nuclear weapons program.

Two hitmen on a motorcycle were said to have attached a magnetic bomb to the car of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan killing him and a passenger instantly as they sat in the Iranian-assembled Peugeot 405 in the northern district of the capital Tehran.

A 32-year-old chemistry expert and director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran, Roshan was said to have been involved in the development of Tehran's atomic program.

The assassination had strong similarities to other executions in recent years of scientists linked to the program and underlined the belief that a major covert operation is underway against it.

Iran has accused Israel's Mossad, the CIA and Britain's spy agencies of engaging in an underground "terrorism" campaign against nuclear-related targets, including at least three killings since early 2010 and the release of a malicious computer virus that temporarily disrupted controls of some centrifuges - a key component in nuclear fuel production.

All three countries have denied the Iranian accusations.

Last week, Tehran pointed the finger at the U.S. and Israel as being behind the latest terrorist attack but promised it would not be a setback to the expanding nuclear program.

Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, the target who
was killed in Tehran when two motorcyclists
attached a magnetic bomb to his car.

"The bomb was a magnetic one and the same as the ones previously used for the assassination of the scientists, and the work of the Zionists (Israelis)," Deputy Tehran Governor Safarali Baratloo was quoted as saying.

First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rashimi added that Israeli agents were behind the attack, but cannot "prevent progress" in what Iran claims are peaceful nuclear efforts.

Israeli officials have hinted about covert campaigns against Iran without directly admitting involvement.

Previously, Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz told a parliamentary panel that 2012 would be a "critical year" for Iran - in part because of "things that happen to it unnaturally."

Roshan, a graduate of the prestigious Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, was deputy director of commercial affairs for the Natanz uranium enrichment plant and in charge of purchasing and supplying equipment for the facility.

Natanz is Iran's main enrichment site.

The U.S. and its allies are pressuring Iran to halt uranium enrichment, a key element of the nuclear program that the West suspects is aimed at producing atomic weapons.

Uranium enriched to low levels can be used as nuclear fuel but at higher levels, it can be used as material for a nuclear warhead.

Iran denies it is trying to make nuclear weapons, saying its program is for peaceful purposes only.

Since December, Iran has held or announced a series of war games that included threats to close the Gulf's vital Strait of Hormuz - the passageway for about one-sixth of the world's oil - in retaliation for stronger U.S.-led sanctions.

"Assassinations, military threats and political pressures ... The enemy insists on the tactic of creating fear to stop Iran's peaceful nuclear activities," lawmaker Javad Jahangirzadeh said after the blast.

"Instead of actually fighting a conventional war, Western powers and their allies appear to be relying on covert war tactics to try to delay and degrade Iran's nuclear advancement," said Theodore Karasik, a security expert at the Dubai-based institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis.

He said the use of magnetic bombs bears the hallmarks of covert operations.

Additional Photos

Type 45 Destroyer HMS Daring was sent to the Strait of Hormuz by the
British Navy after Iran threatened to block it because of attacks on its
nuclear program.

Iran mocks US with Toy Drone

The Iranian government, which captured a U.S. stealth drone in December, has agreed to give the top-secret spy craft back, but instead of the original RQ-170 Sentinel drone, the Islamic Republic said Tuesday that it will send President Obama a tiny toy replica of the plane.

Iranian state radio said that the toy model will be 1/80th the size of the real thing. Iranian citizens can also buy their own toy copies of the drone, which will be available in stores for the equivalent of $4.

The White House formally requested return of the drone after the Iranians displayed it on state television. The U.S. says that the craft was operating over Eastern Afghanistan.

The Iranians claim they detected the drone well inside Iran's border and then took control of the craft electronically and brought it down safely. The U.S. has denied that the craft came down for any reason other than technical malfunction.

On Dec. 11, after President Obama said he had requested the return of the drone, an Iranian general said that it was not going to happen. The general also warned on Iranian's television of a bigger response to the hostile act of crossing into Iranian airspace.

"No one returns the symbol of aggression to the party that sought secret and vital intelligence related to the national security of a country," Iranian Islamic Revolution Guards Corps [IRGC] Lt. Commander Gen. Hossein Salami said, according to Iran's Fars News Agency.

U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said that "given Iran's behavior to date, we do not expect them to comply" with Obama's request. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also said he didn't expect Iran to hand over the drone, but told reporters, "I think it's important to make that request."

Iran sentence a former U.S. Marine to death

Amir Hekmati in Colombia in 2010. Courtesy of Amir's
Family.

The State Department said on Monday that it was working to confirm Iranian state media reports that an Iran revolutionary court had sentenced an American citizen and former U.S. Marine Amir Mirzaei Hekmati to death on charges of spying for the CIA.

"If true, we strongly condemn this verdict," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a press statement on Monday. "Allegations that Hekmati either worked for, or was sent to Iran by the CIA, are simply untrue."

Hekmati "has 20 days to appeal the court's decision," the Washington Post's Thomas Erdbrink reported from Tehran, Iran.

Hekmati, 28, a former U.S. Marine Arabic language translator in Iraq, was born in Flagstaff, Arizona of Iranian descent and raised in Michigan. His family in Michigan, former colleagues and American officials say Hekmati never served in the CIA and was in Iran to visit his grandmother.

Hekmati's parents said they "are shocked and terrified" by the news. His mother Behnaz Hekmati wrote at the website the family set up to advocate for Amir's release, FreeAmir. "We believe that this verdict is the result of a process that was neither transparent nor fair."

"Amir did not engage in any acts of spying, or fighting against God, as the convicting Judge has claimed in his sentence," his mother's press statement continues. "A grave error has been committed, and we have authorized our legal representatives to make direct contact with the Iranian authorities to find a solution to this misunderstanding."

Hekmati had the permission of the Iranian interests—the U.S.-based diplomatic outpost for the Islamic republic—in Washington D.C. to travel to Iran in August to visit his elderly grandmother, his family has told Yahoo News. After his arrest on August 29 last year, Iranian officials initially urged the family to keep quiet in order to facilitate his release.

But in December, Iranian state media aired video of Hekmati allegedly confessing to having worked as a CIA agent—charges his family and friends vehemently deny and which they said appear to have been given under duress.

Hekmati joined the Marines in 2001 after graduating from high school. He was posted to Iraq after attending language school in Monterey, California. He left the Marines in 2005, and later worked for various companies, including those based in Kansas for the government contractor BAE Systems from March until September 2010.

Former U.S. Marine Jared Bystrom told Yahoo News on Tuesday that Hekmati called him last year to propose launching a business together. Bystrom and Hekmati had been posted by the Marines to the defense language school in Monterey, California in 2001, where Hekmati studied Arabic.

Another friend and former colleague of Hekmati's, Chase Winter, told Yahoo News last month that Hekmati had told him he was thinking of going back to school to get a business degree. Hekmati visited Winter in South America last September 2010 for a week's vacation, Winter said.

Hekmati's Facebook page until shortly after his Iran TV video confession last month featured photos of himself in various locales he had traveled and worked—hardly demonstrating the behavior of someone trying to conceal his activities, his associates note.

American officials again called on Monday for the Iran government to give Swiss diplomats consular access to Hekmati, to allow him to meet with a lawyer, and to release him without delay.

"Securing the freedom and safety of this young man is the top concern of the U.S. government in this case," a U.S. official who requested anonymity said on Monday. "Unfortunately, the Iranian government is not doing the right thing here. They have a track record of falsely accusing individuals of espionage for leverage."

International human rights groups also called on Iran to reverse the sentence, and raised concerns about the apparent lack of due process Hekmati was granted. Hekmati is the first American to be sentenced to death in Iran since the 1979 Iranian revolution, Amnesty International said.

"Like many other detainees in Iran, Amir Hekmati did not receive a fair trial and we question the timing and political circumstances of this decision," said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International's interim director for the Middle East and North Africa. "We know from past experience that the Iranian authorities sometimes rush forward with executions of political prisoners — including dual nationals — at politically sensitive times and we fear that this execution could happen within days or weeks."

"We are seriously concerned regarding the death sentence, secrecy, and continued lack of transparency surrounding the prosecution of Iranian-American citizen Amir Hekmati," the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran's Hadi Ghaemi said in a press release on Monday. "We ask the Iranian judiciary to adhere to international standards of due process and allow independent observers in the courtroom at his appeals trial."


Source Yahoo News

Iran threatens U.S. Navy as sanctions hit their economy

Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74)
transits the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran threatened the U.S. on Tuesday to take action if the U.S. Navy moves an aircraft carrier into the Gulf. This has been Tehran's most aggressive statement yet after weeks of saber-rattling as new U.S. and EU financial sanctions take a toll on its economy.

The prospect of sanctions targeting the oil sector in a serious way for the first time has hit Iran's rial currency, which reached a record low on Tuesday and has fallen by 40 percent against the dollar in the past month. Queues formed at Tehran banks and some currency exchange offices shut their doors as Iranians scrambled to buy dollars to protect their savings. On world markets, oil prices soared.

Army chief Ataollah Salehi said the United States had moved an aircraft carrier out of the Gulf because of Iran's naval exercises, and Iran would take action if the ship returned.

"Iran will not repeat its warning... the enemy's carrier has been moved to the Sea of Oman because of our drill. I recommend and emphasize to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf," he said.

"I advise, recommend and warn them over the return of this carrier to the Persian Gulf because we are not in the habit of warning more than once."

The U.S. military brushed off the threat: "The deployment of U.S. military assets in the Persian Gulf region will continue as it has for decades," said spokesman Commander Bill Speaks.

"The U.S. Navy operates under international maritime conventions to maintain a constant state of high vigilance in order to ensure the continued, safe flow of maritime traffic in waterways critical to global commerce."

The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis leads a U.S. Navy task force in the region. It is now outside the Gulf in the Arabian Sea, providing air support for the war in Afghanistan, said Lieutenant Rebecca Rebarich, spokeswoman for the 5th Fleet.

The carrier left the Gulf on December 27 on a planned routine transit through the Strait of Hormuz, she said.

Forty percent of the world's traded oil flows through that narrow straight - which Iran threatened last month to shut if sanctions halted its oil exports.

Brent crude futures were up more than $4 in late Tuesday afternoon trade in London, pushing above $111 a barrel.

Tehran's latest threat comes at a time when sanctions are having an impact on its economy, and the country faces political uncertainty with an election in March, its first since a 2009 vote that triggered countrywide demonstrations.

The West has imposed the increasingly tight sanctions over Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is strictly peaceful but Western countries believe aims to build an atomic bomb.

After years of measures that had little impact, the new sanctions are the first that could have a serious effect on Iran's oil trade, 60 percent of its economy.

Sanctions signed into law by U.S. President Barack Obama on New Year's Eve would cut financial institutions that work with Iran's central bank off from the U.S. financial system, blocking the main path for Iran to receive payments for its crude.

The EU is expected to impose new sanctions by the end of this month, possibly including a ban on oil imports and a freeze of central bank assets.

Even Iran's top trading partner China - which has refused to back new global sanctions against Iran - is demanding discounts to buy Iranian oil as Tehran's options narrow. Beijing has cut its imports of Iranian crude by more than half for January.

Threats

Iran has responded to the tighter measures with belligerent rhetoric, spooling oil markets briefly when it announced last month it could prevent shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

It then held 10 days of naval exercises in the Gulf, test firing missiles that could hit U.S. bases in the Middle East. Tuesday's apparent threat to take action against the U.S. Navy in international waters takes the rhetoric to a new level.

Experts still say they do not expect Tehran to charge headlong into an act of war - the U.S. Navy is overwhelmingly more powerful than Iran's sea forces - but Iran is running out of diplomatic room to avert a confrontation.

"I think we should be very worried because the diplomacy that should accompany this rise in tension seems to be lacking on both sides," said Richard Dalton, former British ambassador to Iran and now an associate fellow at Chatham House think tank.

"I don't believe either side wants a war to start. I think the Iranians will be aware that if they block the Strait or attack a U.S. ship, they will be the losers. Nor do I think that the U.S. wants to use its military might other than as a means of pressure. However, in a state of heightened emotion on both sides, we are in a dangerous situation."

Henry Wilkinson at Janusian Risk Advisory consultants said the threats might be a bid by Iran to remind countries contemplating sanctions of the cost of havoc on oil markets.

"Such threats can cause market confidence in the global oil supply to wobble and can push up oil prices and shipping insurance prices. For the EU powers debating new sanctions, this could be quite a pinch in the current economic climate."

The new U.S. sanctions law, if implemented fully; would make it impossible for many refineries to pay Iran for crude. It takes effect gradually and lets Obama grant waivers to prevent an oil price shock, so its precise impact is hard to gauge.

The European Union is expected to consider new measures by the end of this month. A blockade would halt purchase of Iranian oil by EU members such as crisis hit Greece, which has relied on easy financing terms offered by Tehran to buy crude.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Paris wants new measures taken by January 30, when EU foreign ministers meet. A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said Berlin was in talks with other EU states on "qualitatively new sanctions."

Greek government sources said that Athens, thought of as a possible veto-wielding holdout, was ready to support sanctions. One official told Reuters: "If the European Union decides to impose the sanctions, Greece will join them."

Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said member states would discuss the issue this week in the hope of agreeing on new steps before the January 30 meeting. "The ball is still in the Iranians' court," he said.

Iran has written to Ashton asking to restart talks over its nuclear program that collapsed a year ago. The EU says it does not want talks unless Iran is prepared to discuss serious steps, such as halting its enrichment of uranium.

China cuts Iran oil imports

Although China, India and other countries are unlikely to sign up to any oil embargo, tighter Western sanctions mean such customers will be able to insist on deeper discounts for Iranian oil, reducing Tehran's income.

Beijing has already been driving a hard bargain. China, which brought 11 percent of its oil from Iran during the first 11 months of last year, has cut its January purchase by about 285,000 barrels per day, more than half of the close to 550,000 bpd that it bought through a 2011 contract.

The impact of falling government income from oil sales can be felt on the streets in Iran in soaring prices for state subsidized goods and a collapse of the rial currency.

"The rate is changing every second... We are not taking in any rials to change to dollars or any other foreign currency," said Hamid Bakshi at an exchange office in central Tehran.

Housewife Zohreh Ghobadi, in a long line at a bank, said she was trying to withdraw her savings and change it into dollars.

Iranian authorities played down any link between the souring exchange rate and the new sanctions.

"The new American sanctions have not materialized yet," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.

The economic impact is being felt ahead of a nationwide parliamentary election on March 2, the first vote since a disputed 2009 presidential election that brought tens of thousands of Iranian demonstrators into the streets.

Iran's rulers put those protests down by force, but since then the Arab Spring revolts have show that authoritarian governments in the region are vulnerable to street unrest.

In a sign of political tension among Iran's elite, a court jailed the daughter of powerful former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Tuesday for "anti-state propaganda."

Rafsanjani sided with reformists during the 2009 protests. Daughter Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani went on trial last month on charges of "campaigning against the Islamic establishment."



Source Yahoo News

US warns Iran over threat to block oil route

Admiral Habibollah Sayari says Iran could easily close the
Strait of Hormuz.

Iran warned it would shut the Strait of Hormuz, the oil route, if the West imposed more sanctions over its nuclear program.

On this warning, the US Navy has said it will not tolerate disruption to a vital oil-trade route.

The US and its allies believe Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon - a charge Tehran denies.

Reacting to Iran's warning, a US Fifth Fleet spokeswoman said it was "always ready to counter malevolent actions."

The Strait of Hormuz links the Gulf and the oil producing states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the Indian Ocean. About 40% of the world's tanker-borne oil passes through it.

The US maintains a naval presence in the Gulf, largely to ensure the transport of oil remains open.

The strait "is not only important for security and stability in the region, but also is an economic lifeline for countries in the Gulf, including Iran," Pentagon spokesman George Little said.

"Raising the temperature on tensions in the Gulf is unhelpful," he said, but added that he was unaware of any hostile action directed against US vessels.

US Fifth Fleet spokeswoman Rebecca Rebarich told the BBC, the navy would be ready to act if required. "The US Navy is a flexible, multi-capable force committed to regional security and stability, always ready to counter malevolent actions to ensure freedom of navigation," she said.

Western nations recently imposed new sanctions against Tehran following a UN report that said Iran had carried out tests related to "development of a nuclear device."

Further measures being considered to target Iran's oil and financial sectors have brought a furious response from Tehran.

Vice-President  Mohammad Reza Rahimi warned that "not a drop of oil will pass through the Strait of Hormuz" if sanctions are widened and Iran's navy chief Admiral Habibollah Sayari said that closing the strait would be "easy."

"The enemies will only drop their plots when we put them back in their place," Mr. Rahimi was quoted as saying on Tuesday by the official news agency Irna.

Admiral Sayari later told Iran's Press TV that closing the Strait of Hormuz would be "really easy" for Iran's armed forces "or, as Iranians say, easier than drinking a glass of water."

"But right now, we don't need to shut it as we have the Sea of Oman under control, and we can control the transit," he added.


Iran's threats to close the strait have not flustered markets and oil prices actually fell after a senior Saudi oil official said that Gulf Arab nations were ready to offset any loss of Iranian crude.

Earlier, US State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said the Iranian threats were simply "another attempt... to distract attention from the real issue, which is their continued non-compliance with their international nuclear obligations."

Meanwhile, Iran's navy has been staging wargames in international waters to the east of the strait.

Admiral Sayari said the maneuvers were designed to show Gulf neighbors the power of Iran's military over the zone.

Washington and Israel have not ruled out military actions against Iran's nuclear facilities if sanctions and diplomacy fail.

Iran has vowed to respond by attacking Israeli and US interests in the region.

An embargo on Iranian oil exports has been considered before but dismissed as it could also drive up global oil prices and harm Western economies, particularly in Europe.

It is believed the new measures could cut Tehran off from global energy markets without raising the price of fuel.

Facts about the Strait of Hormuz

• Narrow strip of water separating Oman and Iran
• 34 miles (54 km) across at shortest point
• Used by a third of the world's tanker traffic
• Approximately 15.5m barrels of oil and 2m barrels of oil products pass through each day
• Most oil destined for Asia, US and western Europe
• 50% of China's oil pass through the strait

Russia seizes Iran-bound radioactive material

Moscow, Russia - Russia's customs service said on Friday that it had seized radioactive sodium-22, an isotope that is used in medical equipment but has no weapons use, from the luggage of a passenger planning to fly from Moscow to Tehran.

The service said in a statement that the material could be obtained only as a result of a nuclear reactor's operations but did not say when it had been discovered at Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport.

The material triggered an alarm in the airport's radiation control system and a luggage search led to the discovery of 18 pieces of the radioactive metal packed in individual steel casings, it said.

The passenger boarded the plane for Tehran and left Russia, the customs service said. It added that the passenger was Iranian national. Russian law enforcement agencies opened criminal investigation into the incident.

Sodium-22 can be used for calibrating nuclear detectors and in medical equipment, nuclear experts said.

"There is no weapons aspect to this (material)," said Research director Lars-Erik De Geer of the Swedish Defense Research Institute.

Tension is rising between Western powers and Iran after a United Nations nuclear watchdog report last month that said Tehran appeared to have worked on designing a nuclear weapon, and that secret research to that end may be continuing.

Russia, which built Iran's first nuclear power station, has said it might help Tehran construct more atomic plants.

There was no immediate comment from the International Atomic Energy Agency on the incident and whether Russian authorities had reported it to the Vienna-based U.N. body.

Iran releases video of downed U.S. spy drone RQ 170

Iran's Press TV on Thursday broadcast an extended video tour of the U.S. spy drone, RQ 170, that went down in the country late last week, and it indeed looks to be intact.

American officials have acknowledged that an unmanned U.S. reconnaissance plane was lost on a mission late last week, but have insisted that there is no evidence the drone was downed by hostile acts by Iran. Rather, they said, the drone likely went down because of a malfunction, and they implied the advanced stealth reconnaissance plane would have fallen from a high altitude, that is since the RQ-170 Sentinel can fly as high as 50,000 feet, and as a result, wouldn't be in good shape.

Iran's video tour of the U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone.

Iranian military officials have claimed since Sunday, they brought down an intact American spy drone, and now they are giving video tours of what looks to be a drone in apparently decent condition, in what seems to be another humiliating poke in the eye for U.S. national security agencies.

"On Sunday December 4, the Iranian Army's electronic warfare unit downed the U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel stealth aircraft which was flying over the Iranian city of Kashmar, some 140 miles (225 km) from the Afghan border," Iran's Press TV said in its report Thursday.

The Pentagon is declining to comment on the images, a Defense Department spokesman said Thursday, according to Yahoo News.

The New York Times reported Thursday that, unsurprisingly, the RQ-170 was lost while making the latest foray over Iran during an extended CIA surveillance effort of Iran's nuclear and ballistic weapons program.

"The overflights by the bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel, built by Lockheed Martin and first glimpsed on an airfield in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2009, are part of an increasingly aggressive intelligence collection program aimed at Iran, current and former officials say," the Times' Scott Shane and David Sanger wrote. "The urgency of the effort has been underscored by a recent public debate in Israel about whether time is running out for a military strike to slow Iran's progress toward a nuclear weapon."

Iran in turn has complained that the drone flights represent an act of aggression and violation of its sovereignty, and summoned the Swiss envoy, who represents U.S. interests in Iran, on Thursday to register its complaints.

The video tour may also be a move to bid up the price Iran could receive for sharing the highly advanced American stealth drone technology with countries such as China and Russia. Defense experts have suggested that those countries have the advanced military know-how to be able to use the access to the previously secret U.S. RQ-170 technology to benefit their own programs.

U.K. Embassy stormed in Iran

A large number of protesters gather in front of riot police as
they prepare to break in to the British Embassy during an
anti-British demonstration in the Iranian capital - Tehran,
Iran on November 29, 2011.

Hard-line Iranian students stormed British diplomatic sites in Tehran on Tuesday, bringing down the Union Jack flag, burning an embassy vehicle and British flag, and throwing documents from windows in scenes, which can be described as, a reminiscent of the seizing of the U.S. compound in 1979.

The mob surged past riot police into the British Embassy complex - which they pelted with petrol bombs and stones - two days after Iran's parliament approved a bill that reduces diplomatic relations with Britain following London's support of recently upgraded Western sanctions on Tehran over its disputed nuclear program. Flames shot out of a sport utility vehicle parked outside the brick building.

Demonstrators outside the embassy also burned British flags and clashed with police as the rally, which had been organized by student groups at universities and seminaries.

An Iranian hard-line protester runs inside the British Embassy
as a diplomatic vehicle is set on fire by demonstrators.

Less than two hours later, police appeared to regain control of the site. However, the official IRNA news agency said about 300 protesters entered the British ambassador's residence in another part of the city and replaced British flags with Iranian ones. The British Foreign Office harshly denounced the melee and said Iran has a "clear duty" under international law to protect diplomats and offices. "We are outraged by this," said the statement. "It is utterly unacceptable and we condemn it."

It said a "significant number" of protesters entered the compound and caused vandalism, but gave no other details on damage or whether diplomatic staff was inside the embassy, although the storming occurred after business hours.

Video of the violent protest that stormed the UK Embassy in Iran.

The semiofficial Mehr news agency said embassy staff had left the compound before the mobs entered, but it also said those who occupied the area had taken six staff as hostages. It did not give their nationalities and the report was later removed from the website without elaboration.

Iranian protesters break the windows of a British Embassy
building in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011.

The protesters broke through after clashing with anti-riot police and chanting for its takeover. "Death to England," some cried in the first significant assault of a foreign diplomatic area in Iran in years. More protesters poured into the compound as police tried to clear the site.

Smoke rose from some areas of the embassy grounds and the British flag was replaced with a banner in the name of 7th century Shiite saint, Imam Hussein. Occupiers also tore down pictures of Queen Elizabeth II.

The occupiers called for the closure of the embassy calling it a "spy den" - the same phrase used after militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and held 52 hostages for 444 days. In the early moments of the siege, protesters tossed out papers from the compound and hauled down the U.S. flag. Washington and Tehran have no diplomatic relations since then.

Iranian protesters enter the British Embassy in Tehran, Iran.

The rally outside the British Embassy, which took place on a main street in Tehran downtown, included protesters carrying photographs of nuclear scientist Majid Shahriari, who was killed last year in an attack that Iran blamed on Israeli and British spy services.

State Television reported that another group of hard-line students gathered at the gate of British ambassador's residence in norther Tehran, at the same time.

Britain's Foreign Office said it was in contact with embassy officials. Officials were still checking on the well-being of workers and diplomats, a spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity in line with standing policy. It also warned its citizens in Iran to "stay inside and keep a low profile."

The U.S. also released a statement condemning the embassy storming. "We urge Iran to fully respect its international obligations, to condemn the incident, to prosecute the offenders, and to ensure that no further such incidents take place either at the British Embassy or any other mission in Iran."

Iranian protesters break into the British embassy in Tehran.
More than 20 Iranian protesters stormed the English
embassy, removing the mission's flag and ransacking offices. 

Tensions with the British date back to the 19th century when the Persian monarchy gave huge industrial concessions to London, which later included significant control over Iran's oil industry. But they have become increasingly strained as the West accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons, which a charge Iran denies.

In recent years, Iran was angered by Britain's decision in 2007 to honor author Salman Rushdie with a knighthood.

Rushdie went into hiding after Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a 1989 fatwa, or religious edict, ordering Muslims to kill the author because his novel "The Satanic Verses" allegedly insulted Islam.

Iranian riot police stand guard as protesters gather outside the
British embassy. 

The decision was made shortly after Iran detained 15 British sailors and marines in March 2007 for allegedly entering the country's territorial waters in the Gulf - a claim Britain denies. The 15 were released after nearly two weeks in captivity.

In 2006, angry mobs burned the Danish flag and attacked Danish and other Western embassies in Tehran in protest to the reprinting of a cartoon deemed insulting the Prophet Muhammad in the Nordic country's newspapers.

Additional Photos

Iranian protesters break the windows of a British Embassy building.

UK embassy windows were smashed by Iranian protesters.

Iranian mob enters the British Embassy.

Iranian protesters break into the British Embassy.

Iranian protesters take down the British flag as they break into the embassy
in Tehran.

Iranian protesters taking down the British flag.

Iranian protesters gather outside the British embassy as some break into it.

Iranian protesters gather outside the British embassy as some break into it
and bring down the British flag.

Iranian protesters burn the British flag outside the British embassy.

An Iranian Basij militia member throws stones towards the building of the
British embassy.

Iranian protesters wave a flag that reads "Oh Hussein", referring to the
grandson of Prophet Mohammed, as they stand on the wall of the embassy
 in Tehran.

Iranian riot policemen try to prevent hard-line students from approaching the
British embassy during a protest in Tehran, Iran.

An Iranian hard-line protester is seen inside the British Embassy as a
diplomatic vehicle is set on fire by demonstrators who stormed the mission.

Protesters break in to the British Embassy during an anti-British demonstration
in the Iranian capital.

An Iranian hard-line protester break into the British Embassy in Tehran.

Protesters carry the royal coat of arms after breaking into the British embassy
during an anti-British demonstration in the Iranian capital.

Iranian Protesters carrying the royal coat of arms.

Iranian riot police try to prevent hard-line students from breaking into the
British embassy during a protest outside the mission in Tehran.

Police standing amidst paper strewn across the ground, holding protesters
behind a barrier as others climb a security gate following a break into the
British Embassy during an anti-British demonstration in the Iranian capital
on November 29, 2011.