The US military is not conducting spy flights over Iran and “to the best of our knowlege” neither are other elements of the US government, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday, denying Iranian and US reports to the contrary.
“It’s not happening,” Lawrence DiRita, the chief Pentagon spokesman, told reporters.
DiRita said he could not speak for the US government as a whole, but he said the Defense Department was not flying reconnaissance missions over Iran and he was satisfied they were not being flown by others in the government, an allusion to the US intelligence agencies.
“Nothing I’m saying here is meant to leave any other impression than it’s not happening in the Department of Defense and to the best of our knowledge it isn’t happening period,” he said.
The Washington Post reported earlier this month that US drones have been overflying Iran since April 2004, gathering intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program and probing for weaknesses in Iran’s air defenses.
Iran’s intelligence minister Ali Younessi said last week that the United States has been spying on Iran from the sky for a long time.
The reported spy flights have raised concerns about US military preparations for possible strikes on suspected Iranian nuclear weapons sites.
US President George W. Bush has refused to rule out a military option, but during a visit to Europe sought to allay fears of an attack.
“This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous,” Bush told reporters at the end of a summit in Brussels with European Union (EU) leaders.
“Having said that, all options are on the table,” he added.
