Iran's foreign ministry alleged that a US operation to rescue the F-15E airman may have been a cover to 'steal enriched uranium' from the Islamic Republic.
US President Donald Trump had announced on Sunday that his country's special forces recovered the second crew member of an F-15E that went down over Iran on Friday, in what he called a 'daring' search and rescue operation.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said there were 'many questions and uncertainties' about the operation.
The area where the American pilot was claimed to be present in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province is a long way from the area where they attempted to land or wanted to land their forces in central Iran.
The possibility that this was a deception operation to steal enriched uranium should not be ignored at all,' he further said, adding that the operation was 'a disaster' for the United States.
Iran's military has called it 'a deception and escape mission', insisting it was 'completely foiled'. It said several US aircraft had to 'make emergency landings' in southern Isfahan province after being hit during the mission, with the US 'forced to heavily bombard the downed aircraft' as a result.
US claims aircrafts blown up due to a 'technical malfunction'
The United States government said that two MC-130J Commando II transport aircraft suffered 'mechanical failures' during the high-risk special operations mission in Isfahan.
Apart from that, the area is also a major defence manufacturing hub and has the Khatami (Shekari) Air Base, which is home to Iran's remaining fleet of F-14 Tomcat fighter jets.
