Mennatullah ShawkyIran admits that they have unintentionally shot down a Ukrainian airplane on January 8th, minutes after taking off from Tehran’s airport.
As the investigation is currently still taking place after the news broke out, it has been said that the missiles were fired due to human error.
Iran has stated that they were not to blame. Iran’s leadership says a low-level soldier fired in error and the leadership says it shouldn’t be blamed.
This airplane crash occurred after Iran launched missile strikes that hit two airbases which accommodates the US forces in Iraq. These strikes were in response to the US’s assassination of an Iranian major General, Qasem Soleimani, in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, on 3rd January.
There are still questions that are needed to be answered regarding how the plane crash occurred and who was to blame.
Iran rejected the reports showing that Iran was responsible for the execution of the missiles. However, after the heightening pressure and involvement of the Western countries, they have gathered evidence that demonstrates Iran’s involvement.
The fact alone that Iran has admitted to this tragic error is highly unexpected. Taking responsibility, knowing how the world would respond and the very likelihood of anger amongst its people is an act of détente.
Iran possibly admitted to this act of terror to avoid triggering a war with the West and wanted to be transparent and honest with its people.
However, it is mysterious that Iran’s excuse is that they have mistaken the plane as a missile. In a statement, it was said that the Ukrainian plane has hit a sensitive military base which then executed the missiles killing all the passengers in the plane. Iran was worried that it was turning in the direction of their base, which triggered the missiles.
If this was the case, then who would be responsible for the crash.
It could be one of the members at the military base, who have taken the precaution to fire the missiles for their own defense.
After footage evidence has been discovered, it appears to show the launched missile and moments later coming in contact with the plane. Another footage shows that there was someone clearing the debris from the crash, which raises concerns about what could have been removed or added to the crash, leading to inaccuracies when investigating.
Also, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohamad Javad Zarif, tweeted to blame the US for this tragedy, because of the US’s ‘adventurism’. This may imply that Iran may have been responsible for this crash, as it could be an additional response to the killing of Qasem Soleimani.
Despite Iran promising a full and careful investigation into this tragedy, with inviting the US, Canada, and Ukraine to contribute, the invitation was not worth much. Initially, Iran would not provide visas to those investigators, and instead bulldozed the accident site and now will not send the black boxes to anyone.
