Iran Responds To Allegations It Shot Down Ukrainian Jetliner

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Tension surrounding Iran reached a deadly new height this week when a Ukrainian International Airways flight crashed right outside of an Iranian airport, which killed all 176 people on board. Passengers included citizens of Iran, Canada, and a number of other countries. On Thursday, officials in the U.S., Canada, and Britain said that intelligence seemed to indicate that the plane had been hit (presumably accidentally) by an Iranian missile, which took it down. Now, Iranian authorities are disputing that conclusion and calling on nations to release evidence that they have about the fate of the flight.

Ali Abedzadeh, head of Iran’s national aviation department, insisted:

‘What is obvious for us, and what we can say with certainty, is that no missile hit the plane. If they are really sure, they should come and show their findings to the world.’

Abedzadeh noted, the Associated Press explains, that sharing would be in line with international standards, although Iran has already struggled with adhering to those same standards. The country initially said it would be barring Boeing (and the U.S.) from investigating the crash, although United Nation rules open the door for their participation because the plane was manufactured in the U.S. Under those same provisions, France’s aviation investigation agency will also be participating in the post-crash inquiry, since the plane’s engine was designed by CFM International, which is a collaboration between the French group Safran and the U.S. group GE Aviation.

In the meantime, international authorities already seem certain of their conclusions. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said:

‘We have intelligence from multiple sources including our allies and our own intelligence. The evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile.’

At least 63 of the passengers on the doomed flight were Canadian citizens. The plane was headed for Ukraine, where many of its passengers were set to take a connecting flight to Canada.

An idea for what sparked Iran’s apparent accidental strike on the plane is that the missile operators took the plane’s presence on radar as an indicator of an attack. The incident unfolded right after Iran launched missile strikes on U.S. bases in Iraq, which were in retaliation for Trump’s abruptly ordered assassination of top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. The perceived attack would have been perceived to be U.S. retaliation — meaning, essentially, that the passengers on the downed Ukrainian flight were caught in the crossfire of escalating violent conflict that President Donald Trump kickstarted.

Although Iran has given up its demands to keep Western interests like Boeing and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) out of the crash investigation, the Associated Press notes that there are concerns about sending NTSB employees to Iran, considering ongoing tension. German-based airliner Lufthansa has already cancelled all flights into and out of Iran for a ten day period, and other airliners have been making similar changes. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that:

‘If the international community needs to shut down that airport, so be it. We need to get to the bottom of this very, very quickly.’

The passengers were the victims of belligerent escalation.