Iran ignores U.S. request to return drone

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's defense minister on Tuesday shrugged off a U.S. request for the return of an American spy drone captured by Iranian armed forces and instead demanded an apology from Washington.

Tehran last week identified the drone as the RQ-170 Sentinel and said it was captured over the country's east. The nearly-intact drone was displayed on state TV and flaunted as a victory for Iran in a complicated intelligence and technological battle with the U.S.

"Their plane invaded Iran, and Iranian forces reacted powerfully," said Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi "Now, instead of offering an apology to the Iranian nation, they impudently ask for the return of the plane."

U.S. officials say the unmanned aircraft malfunctioned and was not brought down by Iran. President Barack Obama said Monday the U.S. wants the top-secret aircraft back and has delivered a formal request for the return of the surveillance drone, though it isn't hopeful that Iran will comply.

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Vahidi said the United States should apologize for invading Iranian air space, instead of asking for the drone back.

"Iran will defend its stance and interests strongly," Vahidi said in remarks carried by the semi-official Mehr news agency.

Hours after Mr. Obama announced the request, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad underscored his nation's defiance.

"The Americans have perhaps decided to give us this spy plane," Ahmadinejad said in an interview broadcast live Monday night on Venezuelan state television. "We now have control of this plane."

Also Tuesday, Iranian lawmaker Hamid Rasaei told an open session of the Iranian parliament that the drone is staying in Iran, calling it "war booty."

Later, 186 lawmakers in the 290-seat assembly issued a statement condemning the "invasion" and urging the international community to take a stance toward the "dangerous act" by the U.S.

Meanwhile, state TV said President Obama's demand for the drone's return puts the U.S. in the role of "the beggar" over the issue.

There are concerns in the U.S. that others may be able to reverse-engineer the chemical composition of the drone's radar-deflecting paint or the aircraft's sophisticated optics technology that allows operators to positively identify terror suspects from tens of thousands of feet in the air.

There are also worries that adversaries may be able to hack into the drone's database, although it is not clear whether any data could be recovered. Some surveillance technologies allow video to stream through to operators on the ground but do not store much collected data. If they do, it is encrypted.

On Monday, another lawmaker, Parviz Sorouri, claimed Iranian experts were in the final stages of recovering data from the captured drone.

Mr. Obama wouldn't comment on what the Iranians might learn from studying the downed aircraft. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said it's difficult to know "just frankly how much they're going to be able to get from having obtained those parts."

Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday called the downing of the drone "a significant intelligence loss."

"For us to go in and take out the drone that crashed, I think, would have been a fairly simple operation," he said on CBS's "The Early Show." But Cheney said the administration "basically limited itself to saying 'Please give it back.'"

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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Panetta said they're not optimistic about getting the drone back because of recent Iranian behavior that Clinton said indicated "that the path that Iran seems to be going down is a dangerous one for themselves and the region."

"We submitted a formal request for the return of our lost equipment as we would in any situation to any government around the world," Clinton told reporters at a State Department news conference with British Foreign Secretary William Hague.

"Given Iran's behavior to date we do not expect them to comply but we are dealing with all of these provocations and concerning actions taken by Iran in close concert with our closest allies and partners," she said.

Panetta said the request to return the drone was appropriate. "I don't expect that that will happen," he said. "But I think it's important to make that request."

Neither Obama nor Clinton would provide details of the drone request, but diplomatic exchanges between Washington to Tehran are often handled by Switzerland, which represents U.S. interests in Iran. The State Department said Monday that the Swiss ambassador to Iran met with Iranian foreign ministry officials last week but refused to say what they discussed.

Despite the incident, Clinton said the administration and its allies would continue to push Iran to engage over its nuclear program while at the same time increasing pressure on the regime with new, enhanced sanctions.

"We obviously believe strongly in a diplomatic approach. We want to see the Iranians engage and, as you know, we have attempted to bring about that engagement over the course of the last three-plus years. It has not proven effective, but we are not giving up on it," she said.

Standing beside Clinton, Hague agreed.

"We're not giving up on engagement with Iran, but on a number of occasions Iran has behaved in a way in recent weeks and months which has intensified confrontation with the rest of the world," he said. "We have seen an increasing predilection for dangerous and illegal adventures on the part of at least parts of the Iranian regime."

Clinton and Hague referred to the storming of British diplomatic compounds in Tehran, allegations that Iran tried to arrange the assassination of the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Iran's ongoing support for militant groups and its continued defiance of demands to prove its nuclear program is peaceful.