Iran’s Deputy Interior Minister for Security has told parliamentarians that a recent US operation in Isfahan was aimed at seizing Iranian nuclear material and ended in what officials described as a humiliating failure for Washington, state media reported on May 12.

Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, set out the briefing in remarks to reporters.

The deputy interior minister presented a report on what was described as the ‘Isfahan incident’ and what he called the humiliating failure of the Americans, drawing a parallel with the failed 1980 US attempt to rescue diplomatic hostages from Tehran via Tabas.

The US said the Isfahan incident was a search-and-rescue operation to recover a downed American airman after an F-15 was shot down in Iran. In Trump’s account, the mission successfully retrieved the second crew member from deep inside Iranian territory.

The official claimed it was ‘highly likely’ the enemy’s objective in the Isfahan operation had been to remove Iranian nuclear material, but the mission had been met with complete failure, and the attackers had paid high costs.

The official’s claims regarding the alleged US operation could not be independently verified by IntelliNews. Iranian state media has previously reported on incidents in Isfahan province, home to major Iranian nuclear facilities including the Natanz enrichment complex and the Isfahan uranium conversion facility, without those reports being corroborated by independent sources.

A commission delegation made up of members of its security, defence and nuclear subcommittees travelled to Isfahan to examine the incident in the Dasht-e Mahyar area, where two US planes were destroyed in what appeared to be a botched rescue attempt over two American pilots trapped in the area, according to US claims.

The delegation’s report stressed the need to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents and called on officials to remain vigilant in protecting the lives and property of Iranian citizens.

The report said the Americans had been ‘heavily defeated’ in the incident, had ‘failed to achieve its objectives’ and had borne significant costs, state media claimed.

The interior ministry briefing covered wider security measures taken during what Iran calls the third imposed war or the Ramadan war, with regular meetings of the country’s Security Council producing decisions on domestic security, public health and supplying national needs.

The deputy interior minister told the commission that around 24 trillion tomans (approximately USD566.7mn at the official rate of IRR42,350 to the dollar) had been allocated to municipalities across the country during and after the conflict to ensure they were not destabilised.