Plane truth: Zarif admits people were lied to for days New footage shows 2 Iranian missiles hitting Ukrainian plane
TEHRAN THREATENS Says European soldiers deployed in West Asia ‘could be in danger’ if challenged over 2015 deal
TEHRAN: Iran’s president warned on Wednesday that European soldiers in the Mideast “could be in danger” after three nations challenged Tehran over breaking the limits of its nuclear deal. Tehran’s top diplomat meanwhile acknowledged that Iranians “were lied to” for days following the Islamic Republic’s accidental shootdown of a Ukrainian jetliner that killed 176 people.
President Hassan Rouhani’s remarks in a televised Cabinet meeting represent the first direct threat he’s made to Europe as tensions remain high between Tehran and Washington over President Donald Trump withdrawing the U.S. from the deal in May 2018.
Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif’s admission, which came at the Raisina Dialogue summit in New Delhi on Wednesday, represents the first time an Iranian official referred to earlier claims from Tehran that a technical malfunction downed the Ukraine International Airlines flight as a lie. The shootdown has sparked days of angry protests in the country.
The current tensions between Iran and the U.S. reached feverpitch two weeks ago with the American drone strike in Baghdad that killed the powerful Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Soleimani. The general had led Iranian proxy forces abroad, including those blame for deadly roadside bomb attacks on US troops in Iraq.
Iran retaliated with a ballistic missile strike targeting Iraqi military bases housing US forces early last Wednesday, just before an anti-aircraft battery shot down the Ukrainian airliner taking off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport.
Amid all of this, Britain, France and Germany launched the so-called “dispute mechanism” pertaining to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Speaking before his Cabinet, Rouhani showed a rarely seen level of anger in his wide-ranging remarks on Wednesday.
“Today, the American soldier is in danger, tomorrow the European soldier could be in danger,” Rouhani said. He did not elaborate, though European forces have deployed alongside Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan. France also maintains a naval base in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, while Britian has opened a base in the island nation of Bahrain.
Rouhani separately criticised Europe’s “baseless” words regarding the nuclear deal. Iran had been holding out for Europe to offer a means by which Tehran could sell its oil abroad despite US sanctions. However, a trading mechanism for other goods hasn’t taken hold.
After Soleimani’s killing, Iran announced it would no longer abide by any of the nuclear deal’s limits. However, Iran has said it will continue to allow the UN nuclear watchdog access to its nuclear sites.
The European nations reluctantly triggered the accord’s dispute mechanism on Tuesday to force Iran into discussions, starting the clock on a process that could result in the “snapback” of UN and EU sanctions on Iran.
WASHINGTON: New video footage has emerged showing two Iranian missiles tearing through the night sky and hitting a Ukrainian passenger plane, sending the aircraft down in flames and killing all 176 passengers and crew on board.
The projectiles were fired 30 seconds apart and explain why the plane’s transponder was not working as it hurtled to the ground - it was disabled by the first strike, before being hit by a second, said the New York Times, which published the verified security camera footage on Tuesday.
The blurry film, shot from a rooftop in a village four miles from an Iranian military site, shows the Kiev-bound plane on fire and circling back to Tehran’s airport, the Times said. Minutes later, the aircraft exploded and crashed.
Iran had for days denied Western claims that the Boeing 737 had been downed by its missiles.
Tehran came clean on Saturday when IRGC commander Amirali Hajizadeh acknowledged a missile operator had mistaken the Ukraine International Airlines plane for a cruise missile and opened fire. It happened when Iran’s armed forces were on alert after launching missiles at Iraqi bases hosting US troops in retaliation for the killing of Qasem Soleimani on January 3.