Iran claims it shot down Israeli drone near nuclear facility

Marcy Oster

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Iran claimed that it shot down an Israeli drone near its Natanz uranium enrichment facility.

“This act demonstrates a new adventurism by the Zionist regime,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said in a statement on its official website, the AFP news agency reported. “The Revolutionary Guard and the other armed forces reserve the right to respond to this act,” the statement said.

Natanz, Iran’s main uranium enrichment site with more than 10,000 centrifuges, is located southeast of Tehran.

Israel has not commented on the statement.

Iran and the major powers, led by the United States, agreed in July to extend the talks on Iran’s nuclear program for another four months, citing progress in a number of areas.Iran has said it does not want to reduce its number of its centrifuges, and the world powers will not accept Iran maintaining its current capacity for uranium enrichment.

An interim deal that facilitated the talks in January rolled back some sanctions placed on Iran in exchange for reducing some of its nuclear capability.