Iran 'downs Israeli drone'

"A spy drone of the Zionist regime (Israel) was brought down by a missile... This stealth drone was trying to approach the Natanz nuclear zone," the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) said on Sunday.

The IRGC's public relations office said the intruding drone was intercepted by a surface-to-air missile.

The Natanz facility is situated 300 kilometers (185 miles) south of the capital Tehran. It is the country's main uranium enrichment site, housing more than 16,000 centrifuges.

The Revolutionary Guards' statement did not say when it downed the drone, nor did it say how the Guards knew it was an Israeli drone.

In 2012, Iran claimed it had captured a US drone that was flying in the country's airspace.

The Israeli military says it does not comment on foreign reports.

Iran is expected to hold new talks with the five members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany, before the UN General Assembly starts in September. Those talks are aimed at securing an accord that would curb Iran's nuclear activities in return for relief from crippling Western sanctions.

The six countries fear Iran's uranium enrichment program could be used to make a nuclear weapon, but Tehran maintains its uranium is only used for medical research and power generation.

shs/rc (AFP, Reuters, dpa)