US to Iran: Return the downed RQ-170 UAV

President Barack Obama on Dec. 12 acknowledged for the first time that a U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle was in the possession of the Iranian government and said the United States has asked that nation to return the sophisticated RQ-170 Sentinel UAV that was on a classified mission for the CIA, reports AFP.

The U.S. government has made a formal request to Tehran to return the drone, but doubts it will be returned, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters during a press conference with British Foreign Secretary William Hague, with whom she discussed relations with Iran.

Tehran initially said Iran shot down the RQ-170, but later claimed its military had managed to hack into the UAV's flight controls; U.S. officials maintain it suffered a major malfunction.