A senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ (IRGC) Aerospace Division, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, in response to Washington’s claims that it sabotaged Iran’s missiles, said that Iran’s aerospace force has successfully hacked the US drone command and control system, Press TV reported.
While speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony in Tehran on Sunday, Gen Hajizadeh, was quoted as having said, “We did this to tell them (the Americans) that you not only failed to achieve your goals, but we infiltrated into your systems,” adding that this was a response to the United States’ insolence.
His comments arrive after New York Times reported on February 12 that the administration of US President Donald Trump had reportedly revived a secret plan to sabotage Iran’s ballistic missiles as part of its broader plan to weaken the Islamic Republic’s military capabilities and harm its economy.
According to the report, the program was created under former President George W. Bush, who sought to disrupt Iran’s aerospace program by slipping defective parts and materials into its supply chains.
The sabotage attempts were sped up during the early years of former President Barack Obama’s time in the White House. However, they were toned down in 2017, when Mike Pompeo, who would go on to become the country’s secretary of state, took over as the director of the CIA, the report added.
On Sunday, Hajizadeh said, “If we are declaring this issue today, it is because Americans were impudent enough to say that they have sent impaired parts for [the purpose of sabotaging] our missiles,” as per the report.
He further said although the Americans have recently announced that they wanted to scuttle Iran’s missile program, “we had found out about this a few years back, but we did not make it public,” according to the report.
“They tried to sabotage some [missile] parts to make our missiles blow while flying, but they have not been able to do a damn thing up to the present time, because we had predicted this and had fortified this sector,” he was quoted as having said.
Last Friday, as per the Press TV report, the IRGC said it had penetrated US drone command and control networks, releasing footage of a US military aircraft bombing a hacked drone out of fear that it might end up in the hands of Iranian armed forces.
In the report, Hajizadeh said at that time that the US drone was operating in Syria and Iraq when it was forced to make an emergency landing due to a problem it faced during flight.
The drone was landed with difficulty in a desert area 10 km away from a US base, a report by Fars news agency said.
“However, the Americans did not dare to approach their own drone” and had to bomb it with a warplane, it added.
