Shock over Iran confession
Iranians reacted with shock and incomprehension yesterday after their military confessed to accidentally shooting down the Ukrainian airliner that crashed outside Tehran on Thursday, killing all 176 people on board.
Videos on social media showed small crowds gathering outside universities to chant antigovernment slogans. Chatrooms were filled with anger and grief: ‘‘Shame on this government,’’ wrote one young woman, while another voiced amazement that none of the country’s leaders had resigned. After three days of denials, the military issued a statement on television on Saturday, blaming ‘‘human error’’ for the downing of Ukraine International Airlines flight 752. It pledged that the perpetrators would be held to account.
The plane had been mistaken for a ‘‘hostile target’’ after turning towards a military installation. A missile operator had opened fire ‘‘independently’’ because of communications ‘‘jamming’’, a Revolutionary Guards officer said.
Tehran’s three-day delay in admitting responsibility was notably shorter than the four years it took the United States to confirm that it had shot down an Iranian airliner over the Gulf in 1988. Russia has still not admitted that its proxies brought down a Malaysia Airlines flight over Ukraine in 2014.
Senior Revolutionary Guards commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh said he had informed the authorities on Thursday about the unintentional missile launch, raising questions about why officials had denied it for so long.
In an attempt to distance Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, from the debacle, the semi-official Fars news agency claimed that he was informed that Iran was to blame for the crash only on Saturday. He had immediately ordered that the information be made public, it said.
Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, yesterday cast at least some of the blame for the crash on America. ‘‘Human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster,’’ he wrote on Twitter. Hassan Rouhani, the president, wrote that Iran ‘‘deeply regrets this disastrous mistake. My thoughts and prayers go to all the mourning families.’’
The country had been enjoying a rare moment of unity after America killed General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike.
Hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets for Soleimani’s funeral in his home city of Kerman, where 56 people were crushed to death in a stampede on Wednesday. Iran retaliated for the general’s assassination with a missile bombardment of two Iraqi bases housing American troops. It was only a few hours later that the Ukrainian Boeing 737 dissolved in flames in a field about 20km northwest of the city.
Many in Tehran were complaining on social media that the authorities had spent more time fending off criticism than sympathising with victims’ families. Videos yesterday showed small groups of protesters in Tehran. One shouted, ‘‘Death to the dictator!’’
Experts questioned Iran’s decision to keep the airport open when anti-aircraft batteries were on high alert in expectation of a US attack in the hours after Iran’s missile strikes against Iraqi bases.
The Ukrainian airliner appears to have fallen victim to an anti-aircraft missile battery inside a secretive missile research centre near the airport.
‘‘They were expecting cruise missiles in this secret missile research centre, and this centre is close to an airport. But they didn’t close the airport. It was very irresponsible,’’ said Farzin Nadimi, an Iranian-american expert on Iranian defence affairs with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank.
– Sunday Times