Iran has unveiled an indigenously-developed long-range drone aircraft which, it claims, can reach most of the Middle East countries including its arch enemy Israel.
Iran's state TV on Tuesday aired a video footage of the reconnaissance drone named 'Shahed-129' along with an interview of Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace division.
His description of the drone was similar to that of the United States' RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, one of which crashed in Iranian territory last year.
Hajizadeh said Iranian scientists designed and developed the drone which has a range of 2,000 kilometers and can carry bombs and missiles.
Israel has threatened air strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities if it continued the disputed nuclear program which the West Suspects is aimed at developing atomic weapons, a charge Iran consistently denies.
Despite several rounds of U.N. and unilateral Western sanctions for its nuclear defiance, Iran continues its belligerency threatening to block the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway connecting the oil-producing Gulf States with the Indian Ocean, and a pre-emptive strike on Israel.
speaking in New York on Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel had no roots in the Middle East and would be "eliminated" if it attacked his country.
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