‘Disastrous mistake’: Iran acknowledges shooting down Ukrainian airliner
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran said yesterday its military had shot down a Ukrainian plane killing all 176 aboard in a “disastrous mistake,” saying air defences were fired in error while on alert after Iranian missile strikes on U.S. targets in Iraq.
Iran had denied for days after Wednesday’s crash that it had brought down the airliner, although a top Revolutionary Guards commander said yesterday that he told authorities about the unintentional missile strike the day it happened.
Even as top Iranian officials and the military issued apologies, protests against authorities spread across Iran including in the capital Tehran, Shiraz, Esfahan, Hamedan and Orumiyeh. Foreign governments condemned Iran’s shootdown, with Ukraine demanding compensation. Canada, Ukraine and Britain, however, called Tehran’s admission an important first step.
“What Iran has admitted to is very serious. Shooting down a civilian aircraft is horrific. Iran must take full responsibility,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose country had 57 citizens on board, told reporters at a news conference in Ottawa. “Canada will not rest until we get the accountability, justice, and closure that the families deserve.”
Trudeau said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani committed to collaborating with Canadian investigators, working to deescalate tensions in the region and continuing a dialogue.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Iran’s acknowledgement was a step in the right direction but added, “The perpetrators must be held accountable.” Writing on Twitter, Zelenskiy said Rouhani had apologised to him on behalf of his country. Zelenskiy demanded that the victims be identified and returned to Ukraine at once.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, until now silent about the crash, said information about the incident should be made public.Up to 1,000 protesters chanted slogans in Tehran against the authorities, the semi-official Fars news agency said in a rare report on anti-government unrest.
Demonstrators ripped up pictures of Qassem Soleimani, a prominent Iranian military commander who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq on Jan. 3. Iranian missile strikes on U.S. targets in Iraq on Wednesday in retaliation for the killing led to Iran being on a state of high alert for possible reprisals in the hours when the plane was downed.
A British envoy to Tehran was arrested for several hours in front of Amir Kabir University for inciting anti-government protesters, the Tehran-based Tasnim news agency said.
On Twitter, videos showed protesters demanding that Khamenei step down because of the disaster.
“Commander-in-chief resign, resign,” hundreds chanted in front of Tehran’s Amir Kabir university. Reuters could not verify the footage.
The crash heightened international pressure on Iran after months of friction with the United States and tit-for-tat attacks. Canada and the United States had both said early on that they believed an Iranian missile brought down the aircraft, probably in error.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran deeply regrets this disastrous mistake,” Rouhani wrote on Twitter, promising that those responsible would be prosecuted. “My thoughts and prayers go to all the mourning families.”
U.S. REACTION
In the first official U.S. statement after Iran’s admission, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo posted on Twitter a video of the protests in Tehran with the caption, “The voice of the Iranian people is clear. They are fed up with the regime’s lies, corruption, ineptitude and brutality” of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of the Iranian military, under what he called Khamenei’s “kleptocracy.”
Experts said mounting international scrutiny would have made it all but impossible to hide signs of a missile strike in any investigation and Iran may have felt a Uturn was better than battling rising criticism abroad and growing grief and anger at home, as many victims were Iranians with dual nationality.
In Twitter messages, angry Iranians asked why the plane was allowed to take off with tensions in Iran so high.
The plane, a Boeing 737-800 en route for Kiev, came down shortly after take-off from Tehran, when Iran was alert for U.S. reprisals after launching rockets at U.S. troops in Iraqi bases.