Tehran, April 6 -- Iran believes that US' attempt to save its pilots could have been a cover to steal Iranian uranium, it failed, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on Monday.

"The fact that it could have been a deceptive maneuver in order to steal enriched uranium cannot be ignored. One thing is absolutely clear - the result of this operation was nothing more than a 'second Tabas,'" Baghaei said, as broadcast by Iranian television channel SNN.

On Friday, US media reported that the United States had launched a large-scale search and rescue operation following the crash of an F-15E Strike Eagle supersonic fighter-bomber over Iran.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from United News of India....