Iran Suggests Daring U.S. Airman Rescue Was ‘Foiled’ Plot to ‘Steal Enriched Uranium’

The Iranian Foreign Ministry claimed on Monday that Sunday’s daring American rescue of a downed pilot might have been a “deception operation” for a failed attempt to steal Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium.

“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,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei.

“The possibility that this was a deception operation to steal enriched uranium should not be ignored at all,” he insisted.

Baqaei disputed accounts of the American rescue mission as an astounding success, with no loss of life and significant casualties inflicted on Iranian ground forces who attempted to interfere with the rescue. 

Instead, the Iranian spokesman said there were “many questions and uncertainties” about the operation, which he described as a