Getting The Picture

"These drones transmit the pictures online.  The pictures of forbidden sites taken and transmitted by this drone are now in our possession"  [Hezbollah] "won't announce it as long as it doesn't see the need to do so ...  That's why we say we will respond to Israel inside (its) territory, should it take any action against us."
Ismaeil Kowsari, former commander, Revolutionary Guard

While an Israeli investigation is continuing into the incident where it shot down an Iranian drone dispatched by Hezbollah, well intruding into the Negev desert, not far from its Dimona Nuclear Plant, Israeli security doesn't believe the drone possessed a camera, much less one that was capable of transmitting back data to its handlers.

Yet Iran triumphantly insists it is in possession of sensitive images of Israeli military bases taken by that same drone that had evaded Israeli radar to penetrate fairly deeply into the Negev before it was shot down.  Iran doesn't really have to prove anything.  It never does; it simply makes claims and leaves the rest to the imagination of those it taunts.

And it is now taunting Israel and the United States with additional news about the evolution of its technologies, perfecting new, sophisticated unmanned surveillance aircraft that have been dispatched to make undetected flights into Israeli airspace on data-gathering assignments.

Tehran's Ahmad Vahid, the defence minister, lays claim to advanced drones representing the "latest Iranian technology, definitely."

And there have been additional technological armaments breakthroughs in Iran's defence program.  A long-range missile-carrying drone with a range of 2,000 kilometres.  Named the Shahed-129, the drone is capable of covering much of the Middle East, doubling the range of earlier drones.  Or so the message goes.

It is not yet possible to ascertain whether the new drone may contain any of the advanced elements of the unmanned CIA aircraft accessed by Iran last year.  Iran claims, nonetheless that it successfully recovered data from the RQ-170 Sentinel, and was busy in the process of building its own replica of the American craft. 

This is bellicose posturing, a process beloved of militant belligerent Middle East leaders and which Iran has perfected to the nth degree in its zeal to intimidate and strike fear into the imaginations of those who have reason to suspect it of military, political, religious and social one-upsmanship.

The message to Israel is loud and quite clear.  No need to prove any of the boasts.  Simply plant an awareness of the Islamic Republic's readiness to respond should Israel attempt a nuclear bombing mission, and Iran is prepared to reciprocate instantly.  And for the United States the message is that their forces stationed in the Middle East are equally vulnerable.

And for the Arab states in the Middle East, averse to a Persian leadership role demanding subservience to Shia Islam and militant Islamism from Iran the message is implicit that despite the world's concerns, and crippling economic isolation, Iran still has friends and represents a menace to their Sunni-led primacy.