Iranian authorities: Pilot rescue operation may have been cover for theft of enriched uranium

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Bagei said today that the American operation to rescue the pilot could have served as a cover for the theft of enriched uranium, citing many ambiguities in the operation, the Paris newspaper Le Monde reported on its website.

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the second pilot of a plane that crashed two days earlier in Iran, which Tehran claims it shot down, was rescued in a daring military operation. The Iranian military says it foiled the operation but has not explicitly denied rescuing the pilot.

A spokesman for the Iranian diplomacy said today that there were many uncertainties surrounding the operation.

"The area where the presence of the American pilot was reported, in the provinces of Kohgilujeh and Boyer-Ahmad, is very far from the area where the Americans tried to land, or intended to deploy their forces in central Iran," Bagei told reporters.

According to him, the possibility that the operation was a deception, actually aimed at stealing enriched uranium, should absolutely not be ruled out.

In central Iran, there is a uranium enrichment facility in Yazd province.

Bagei called the rescue operation "a disaster for Washington," as the Iranian military claims its forces destroyed two Black Hawk helicopters and two C-130 military transport planes.

According to the military, the planes were hit, forcing them to make an "emergency landing in Isfahan province" in central Iran.

Two planes that were supposed to transport the pilot and his rescuers to safety were stuck at a remote base in Iran and had to be destroyed to prevent them from falling into the hands of Iranian forces, US media reported.

They added that US forces then used three more transport planes.

After the operation, Trump said that no Americans were killed in it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today, without giving details, that Israel contributed to the rescue operation.

"I am very proud that our cooperation with the US, on and off the battlefield, is unprecedented and that Israel was able to help save a brave American soldier," Netanyahu wrote on the social media platform X.