Iran Admits Unintentionally Shooting Down Ukrainian Airliner

It also undermines the credibility of information provided by senior Iranian officials so far. As recently as Friday, Ali Abedzadeh, the head of the national aviation department, told reporters with certainty that a missile had not caused the crash. On Thursday, the cabinet spokesman Ali Rabiei had also dismissed reports of a missile strike.

Zelenskiy said: “Even before the termination of the International Commission, Iran has pleaded guilty to crashing the Ukrainian plane. But we insist on full admission of guilt. We expect from Iran assurances of readiness for full and open investigation, bringing those responsible to justice, returning the bodies of the dead, payment of compensation, official apologies through diplomatic channels.”

The acknowledgement is also likely to inflame public sentiment inside the country against authorities after Iranians had rallied around their leaders following Suleimani’s killing. The general was seen as a national icon and hundreds of thousands of people turned out for funeral processions across the country.

The vast majority of the crash victims were Iranians or Iranian-Canadians, however, and it came just weeks after authorities quashed nationwide protests ignited by a hike in fuel prices.

“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 had denied for several days that missiles could have downed the aircraft and instead blamed a mechanical malfunction.

Western security officials began briefing on Thursday afternoon that intelligence suggested the plane had been accidentally shot down by two surface-to-air missiles fired by the Iranian military.

A preliminary report released by Iran’s civil aviation authority the day after the crash found that the pilots of the doomed plane did not make radio contact but had attempted to turn back to the airport before the plane went down.

Experts raised serious concerns over the handling of the crash site, such as over the removal of debris, prompting fears that Tehran had sought to eliminate evidence from the area.

Iran has invited investigators from Canada and Ukraine and from Boeing to visit the crash site on the outskirts of Tehran and said it would also welcome representatives of other countries whose citizens were killed.

The plane, en route to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members from several countries, including 82 Iranians, at least 57 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians and three Britons.

Iran had said on Thursday it would download information from voice and flight data recorders, known as black boxes, to determine what had happened, although it said the process could take up to two months. The Ukrainian foreign minister, Vadym Prystaiko, said on Friday that Kyiv had been given access to the flight recorders and planned to start analysing their content.

Experts said mounting international scrutiny would have made it all but impossible to hide signs of a missile strike during any investigation and Tehran may have felt it best to make a swift policy reversal than battle rising criticism abroad.

Story cited here.