Video of an unidentified object over Tehran: multicolored lights and old questions

Over the weekend, short clips spread across social media — 14-second footage in which a cluster of lights shimmering red, green and blue flickers over nighttime Tehran.

The video began circulating widely on 20 September 2026. Some authors claimed the footage was shot the day before or the same day not far from the Azadegan highway.

The footage has no metadata, landmarks or fixed reference points, so it is impossible to determine the object's size, altitude, speed or distance.

Iranian aviation and military authorities have so far not commented on the appearance of the lights or identified their nature.

Users on X and Reddit offered various explanations: a drone or a group of drones, an ordinary aircraft, a kite with LED lighting. None of them has been confirmed.

The appearance of the clips coincided with the 50th anniversary of the well-known Tehran incident of 19 September 1976, when Iranian F-4 Phantom fighter jets scrambled to intercept a bright object, and the pilots reported interference with their systems.

Tensions between Iran and the United States persist in the region at present, and any unidentified lights in the capital's sky inevitably attract attention.

Can this footage be considered anything more than just a bright toy or an ordinary aircraft?

So far there are no official answers, and the clips continue to rack up views and discussion.