The CIA has been operating stealth surveillance drones deep inside Iran for the last three years, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.

The drones were operating freely above hundreds of suspicious facilities, before the aircraft, named the RQ-170 Sentinel, crashed within Iran in December.

According to U.S. officials, the drones, that have been scouring dozens of sites throughout Iran, have given the Obama administration confidence that the U.S. will see any activity that would indicate Tehran decided to assemble a nuclear bomb.

“There is confidence that we would see activity indicating that a decision had been made,” a senior U.S. official was quoted as saying by the Washington Post. “Across the board, our access has been significantly improved.”

The Obama administration believes that the improved intelligence gathered through these covert operations will strengthen its bargaining power in the upcoming nuclear talks with Iran.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

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