U.S Views Iran Move of Flying Drone over its Carrier "Abnormal"

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - Iran state television reported Friday 29 January 2016 that it has flown a surveillance drone over U.S aircraft carrier where “precise” photographs were taken. According to usnews, reports also come from U.S Navy who claim to have been witnessing an unarmed Iranian drone flying near French and American carrier on January 12 2016 but they cannot fully confirm whether or not the incident is correlated to the most recent one.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard published footage allegedly confirming that it was their drone and it was part of their naval drill which has been done for three days. Citing from Washingtonpost, U.S Navy spokesman actually could not confirm the authenticity of the video but he admitted to have been spotting the drone flying around the French carrier Charles de Gaulle and the American carrier USS Harry S. Truman before on the 12^th of January in the Persian Gulf. In spite of the fact that the drone was evidently unarmed and harmless, William Marks still considers such gesture as “abnormal and unprofessional”.

“We are confident in our force’s ability to respond appropriately as the situation dictates and will defend ourselves should that prove necessary,” he said.

In accordance to Portlandpressherald, the drone may not prove itself as a hindrance to U.S operations in the war against Islamic State group but the it somewhat highlights the growing tension over control of waterways that are “crucial to global oil supplies”.

It was intensified with Islamic Republic testing its rocket last month, Iran’s capture of American sailors who was led astray into its territorial waters and recent claim made by the state-run IRNA news agency which suggest that its light-scale submarine also participated in the surveillance operation.

“Iran has several submarines underway for its current exercise but declined to discuss specifics”, Cmdr. Kevin Stephens, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet based in Bahrain stated, as cited in CNN.