Tehran, Iran, Feb. 8
By Mehdi Sepahvand – Trend:
Iran is going to limit the use of quadcopters for the public after a couple of incidents that involved shooting at such aircraft around a no-fly zone in downtown Tehran.
“A workgroup is formed to limit the sales and use of small aircraft to official permissions,” Iran’s air defense chief, Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili said, Mehr news agency reported February 8.
“This is a security issue. There should be a registry where we would know who imported the drones, who bought them, and who uses them,” he said.
On January 16, Tehran citizens climbed to rooftops around 17:00 local time to watch continued air defense shooting around Enqelab Square, where there is a no-fly zone encompassing the headquarters of the supreme leader and the president.
Local sources reported Tehran’s Deputy Governor General for Security Ali Asqar Nasserbakht as having said during the operation that a quadcopter had been shot down.
That was the second unleashing of air defense in downtown Tehran in less than a month due to the same reason. On December 23, 2016, Iran’s Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base said that its forces had shot down an unmanned aircraft in the same area.