‘The world is watching’
Iran will have to prove it’s ‘ transparent’: mini ster
Iran’s promise to allow Canada access to the investigation of Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 is being strained as the country’s government is dragging its feet on issuing visas for Canadians trying to travel to the site.
Foreign Affairs Minister François- Philippe Champagne said Friday consular teams and Transportation Safety Board ( TSB) investigators were waiting in Ankara, Turkey, with a total of 12 Canadian officials ready to go, but most still waiting for visas.
Champagne announced a new international group with representatives from the governments of Ukraine, Sweden, Afghanistan, and the United Kingdom who will push together for an open investigation. Canada and the United Kingdom have both said they believe an air defence missile downed the jet.
Champagne also said 57 Canadians had been on the plane, lower than the previously announced number of 63.
Champagne said he hoped the Iranian government would issue the visas quickly and give Canadian investigators full access to the site, but said Iran will have to show it wants the transparency it has publicly committed to.
“Time will tell and the world is watching,” he said. “Over the course of the next days we will see if they are genuine in their interest to have a full and transparent investigation.”
Champagne also announced the Canadian government would have a task force to help families of the Canadian victims obtain visas and other travel documents.
All of the 176 people on board flight 752 were killed when the plane crashed Wednesday morning, minutes after taking off from Tehran’s airport. According to the airline, 138 of the people on board were set to connect to a flight headed for Toronto.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday Canada has multiple sources of intelligence indicating that the plane was shot down, possibly unintentionally, by an Iranian air defence missile. He called for a thorough investigation.
“The families of the victims and all Canadians want answers. I want answers,” he said. “This government will not rest until we get that.”
American outlet CBS News reported from the scene of the crash Friday saying much of the wreckage had been cleared from the site. The Iranian Fars new agency was reporting investigators would announce a cause for the crash on Saturday.
Ukrainian investigators have been allowed into the country to take part in the investigation. The country’s ambassador to Canada Andriy Shevchenko said so far they have received cooperation from the authorities.
“There is a team of 45 Ukranians on the ground and they are experts of different sorts,” he said. “There is good co- operation on the ground, a normal co- operation on the ground, on a professional level.”
Shevchenko said he had received no information on whether the wreckage had been cleared, but said Iran was working with the Ukrainian team.
“We are getting physical access both to the aircraft pieces and to the crash site.”
He said they have made it clear to Iranian authorities that Canada should play a key role in the crash investigation and Ukraine will share anything it learns with Canada.
“Good genuine proper investigation is clearly in everyone’s interest,” he said. “We are going to share all the information that is important for our friends and counterparts.”
He said they don’t have information to confirm the missile strike theory, but also don’t have any information that would rule it out.
Larry Vance, who worked as a TSB investigator for decades, said clearing the wreckage as the Iranians have done is an unusual move for an investigation and will make it hard to trust any conclusions.
“It’s going to have a tremendously negative effect on the investigation,” he said. “It’s a credibility thing.”
The Iranian authorities have dismissed the missile theory as scientifically unsound and have said suggested it was likely a technical failure of the aircraft.
Vance said the Iranians have damaged their own case by clearing the rubble.
“They have basically destroyed any evidence they would need to prove that.”
He said the reluctance to allow international investigators to the crash site paints the investigation in a negative light.
“They should be crying out for these kind of people and instead of that they seem to be only pushing away, pushing away and only begrudgingly giving access,” he said.
Jeff Guzzetti, a consultant and former investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, America’s accident investigation service, said international treaties limit Canada’s involvement somewhat.
Guzzetti said International Civil Aviation Organization’s rules allow for the country where the plane was manufactured and the airline’s home country to have a major role in the investigation, but that treaty doesn’t grant as many rights to passengers’ home countries.
“They have been invited for one reason, because many of their citizens were killed, not because they had anything to do with the design or manufacturer of the aircraft or the engines,” he said.
Guzzetti said the clearing of the site might not have destroyed all the evidence and if it was catalogued it won’t be a major issue, but Canadian investigators may have a serious challenge ahead of them.
He said he views the missile as by far the most likely cause, because it’s the only thing that explains such a sudden and catastrophic failure of the jet.
“There is really only way to get there and that was a missile or a bomb.”