Iran yesterday said that its armed forces “unintentionally” shot down the Ukrainian jetliner that crashed earlier this week, killing all 176 onboard, after the government had repeatedly denied Western accusations that it was responsible.
The plane was shot down on Wednesday, hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on two military bases housing US troops in Iraq in retaliation for the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a US airstrike in Baghdad.
No one was wounded in the attack on the bases.
A military statement carried by state media said that Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was mistaken for a “hostile target” after it turned toward a “sensitive military center” of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The military was at its “highest level of readiness,” it said, amid the heightened tensions with the US.
“In such a condition, because of human error and in a unintentional way, the flight was hit,” the military said.
It apologized and said it would upgrade its systems to prevent future tragedies.
Those responsible for the strike on the plane would be prosecuted, the statement said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy issued a statement saying the crash investigation should continue and the “perpetrators” should be brought to justice.
Iran should compensate victims’ families, Zelenskiy said, adding that “official apologies through diplomatic channels” must be made.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the truth be told after the initial denials by the government, the Fars news agency reported.
“As soon as the supreme leader was informed of the catastrophic mistake” on Friday, he ordered that the outcome of investigations “be made known to the people explicitly and honestly,” Fars reported.
Khamenei ordered the country’s armed forces to address “shortcomings,” his office said.
“I emphatically advise the general headquarters [of the armed forces] to follow up on shortcomings” to ensure this kind of error does not happen again, said a statement on his official Web site.
He expressed his “sincere condolences” to the families of the deceased, it said.
Iran’s acknowledgement of responsibility for the crash was likely to inflame public sentiment against authorities after Iranians had rallied around their leaders in the wake of Soleimani’s killing.
Soleimani, the leader of the Guard’s Quds Force and the architect of Iran’s regional military interventions, was seen as a national icon, and hundreds of thousands of Iranians had turned out for funeral processions across the country.
The majority of the plane crash victims were Iranians or Iranian-Canadians.
Iranian officials had repeatedly ruled out a missile strike, dismissing such allegations as Western propaganda that officials said was offensive to the victims.
The crash came just weeks after authorities quashed nationwide protests ignited by a hike in gasoline prices.
Iran has been in the grip of a severe economic crisis since US President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed crippling sanctions.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani blamed the shootdown of the plane in part on “threats and bullying” by the US after the killing of Soleimani.
He expressed condolences to families of the victims and called for a “full investigation” and the prosecution of those responsible.
“A sad day,” Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted. “Human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster. Our profound regrets, apologies and condolences to our people, to the families of all victims, and to other affected nations.”
The jetliner, a Boeing 737-800, went down on the outskirts of Tehran shortly after taking off from Imam Khomeini International Airport.
The US and Canada, citing intelligence, said they believed Iran shot down the aircraft with a surface-to-air missile, a conclusion supported by video footage.
The plane, en route to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members from several countries, including 82 Iranians, 57 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians, according to officials.
The Canadian government had earlier lowered the nation’s death toll from 63.
“This is the right step for the Iranian government to admit responsibility, and it gives people a step toward closure with this admission,” said Payman Parseyan, a prominent Iranian-Canadian in western Canada who lost a number of friends in the crash. “I think the investigation would have disclosed it whether they admitted it or not. This will give them an opportunity to save face.”
Iran’s acknowledgement of responsibility was likely to renew questions of why authorities did not shut down the country’s main international airport and its airspace after the ballistic missile attack, when they feared US reprisals.
It also undermines the credibility of information provided by senior Iranian officials.
As recently as Friday, Iranian Civil Aviation Organization chief executive Ali Abedzadeh had told reporters “with certainty” that a missile had not caused the crash.
On Thursday, Iranian Cabinet spokesman Ali Rabiei dismissed reports of a missile, saying they “rub salt on a painful wound” for families of the victims.
Some speculated that the security forces might have concealed information from civilian authorities.
“Concealing the truth from the administration is dreadful,” Mohammed Fazeli, a sociology professor in Tehran, wrote on social media. “If it had not been concealed, the head of civil aviation and the government spokesmen would not have persistently denied it.”
“Concealing the truth for three days is dangerous,” Fazeli said.
Additional reporting by AFP
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