It would be interesting to know at what extent ,the israeli deterrent strategy of killing senior officers, is used by Hamas officers themselves as a tool in the internal power play. Theoretically used by anyone with an interest in Hamas' command structure. But just looking at Hamas I think...
My guess is that the drone invaded iranian airspace and then turned back. Which would explain why the Su-25's intercepted it about 7 kilometers outside of irans airspace. If this is true then it would make sense not to shot down the drown over international airspace. Imagine the headlines had it...
Based on the limited information we have and seeing how the conflict could have escalated drastically had it been shot down I think the most rational descision on the iranian part would be one that ensured the drone made it home in one piece. And it did.
According to Pentagon it conducted a classified mission 30 kilometers off the Iranian coast. In that case it would be interesting to know where it was intercepted to gain insight into what kind of intelligence they wanted to gain. Or maybe the americans are trying to say something?
Head of judiciary Sadeq Larijani is signaling the opposite according to statement.
I can't post links yet....Google "Iran cool to re-elected Obama and talk of talks" and read the article on Reuters.
What is the general view of the chinese on the dispute between Iran and the west? What is believed to be in Chinas best interest with regard to this dispute?