It is unlikely that the United States will recover the spy drone it lost to Iran as the Islamic Republic declared on Sunday that it does intend to give up the 'trophy' it painstakingly won last week.

According to Gen Hossein Salami, deputy chief of Tehran's elite Revolutionary Guard, American can forget about the unmanned intelligence aircraft it lost near the Iranian-Afghanistan border, as his country has no plans of returning the prize catch.

Salami stressed that the captured aircraft serves as a clear evidence that America has violated Iran's airspace and also reminds the international community that Tehran has routed Washington on the two nation's informal tiff.

Salami added that Iran's intelligence and technological prowess proved at least equal to that of the United States'.

"Iran is among the few countries that possesses the most modern technology in the field of pilotless drones. The technology gap between Iran and the U.S. is not much," the high-ranking Guard official was reported by the Associated Press (AP) as saying on Sunday.

"No one returns the symbol of aggression to the party that sought secret and vital intelligence related to the national security of a country," Salami added in justifying Iran's decision to keep the captured UAV it identified as the RQ-170 Sentinel.

Tehran claimed last week, through reports broadcasted by the state-run Iran News Agency (IRNA), that it was able to assume control of the Sentinel as it flew some 140 miles off Kashmar, located east of Iran.

In a statement, Revolutionary Guard officials hailed the event as an electronic ambush planned and staged by Iran, claims that were partly confirmed by the United States when its officials confirmed that a spy drone was lost during a mission in Afghanistan.

Initial reports gathered by U.S. intelligence officials indicated that the UAV malfunctioned, which gave the Iranians enough window of opportunity to capture the spy drone without firing a single shot.

In videos shown by IRNA recently, the captured spy drone was seen largely intact and being admired and inspected by Iranian military officials.

Both sides have yet to furnish details on how the incident transpired as Salami stressed that "we can't elaborate on the methods we employed to intercept, control, discover and bring down the pilotless plane."

"A party that wins in an intelligence battle doesn't reveal its methods," the Iranian military official added.