Iran lied about how it shot down airliner: UN expert
UNITED NATION: A UN official on Tuesday accused Iran of lying in its explanation of how it shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet near Tehran last year at a time of acute tension with the US.
On January 8, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 crashed shortly after taking off from Iran’s capital Tehran killing all 176 people aboard, including 55 Canadians.
The Islamic republic admitted three days later that its forces mistakenly shot down the Kievbound Boeing 737-800 plane after firing two missiles.
Agnes Callamard, a special UN rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, unveiled the results of a probe into the tragedy and said the Iranian explanation of what went wrong is full of contradictions.
“The most troubling thing is that the explanations by the Iranian authorities about the mistake or mistakes that were made do not add up,” she told reporters.
She said the Iranian version of events is “full of contradictions. They are contradicted by the facts, by the technical assessments of many experts.”
“Why does Iran lie? Because there is no other term to use,” said Callamard.
‘Iran uranium enrichment purity, quantities rising’ The UN’s atomic watchdog says its inspectors have confirmed that Iran has started enriching uranium up to 20% purity, a technical step away from weapons-grade levels.
Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is also now more than 14 times over the limit set down in its 2015 deal with world powers, International Atomic Energy Agency reported on Tuesday.
Iran’s total enriched uranium stockpile is now 2,967.8kg. The nuclear deal allows Iran only to keep a stockpile of 202.8kg. It also allows enrichment only up to 3.67%.