Iran says it will arm Palestinians after Israeli spy drone downed

In response to discovering an Israeli drone flying over its nuclear facilities, Iran said it will arm Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, an Iranian military official said.

“Tehran will accelerate arming Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in retaliation for Israel deploying the spy drone over Iran,” General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, commander of aerial forces of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, said in a statement on its official website.

“We reserve the right to give any response,” he added.

Israel refused to comment on the incident saying that it does not comment on information obtained through mass media.

Meanwhile, Hajizadeh warned that if such spying mission was repeated, the Iranian response would be “destructive”.

In late July, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the Israeli war on Gaza, saying that the West Bank should be armed like Gaza.

The more recent warning came a day after the Guards said they had brought down the Israeli “stealth drone” above the centre of the country.

The Guards issued a statement on Sunday, saying their forces fired a missile at the drone as it neared Iran’s uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, some 240 kilometres south of the capital, Tehran.

Hajizadeh said the drone, which had two high quality cameras, did not take off from Israel, but from a third country. He did not say where it had originated.

He said that it was made from substances which could not be picked up by RADAR however; it was revealed by a certain tracking system used by the Revolutionary Guards.