The Iranian government has acknowledged that the Ukrainian airplane, which crashed on Wednesday, January 8, killing all 176 people onboard, was shot down “unintentionally.”
In a statement broadcasted on state TV, the Middle Eastern country issued a formal apology to the families of the victims, including those of foreign nationals, and attributed the incident to “human error.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif expressed, “A sad day. Preliminary conclusions of internal investigation by armed forces: human error at the 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 country’s military admitted that the airplane was mistaken for a hostile target when it turned towards a sensitive military center of the Revolutionary Guard. Furthermore, it pledged to hold those responsible for the shooting down of the Ukrainian airplane accountable and disclosed plans to upgrade its system to prevent such mistakes in the future.
The crash occurred shortly after Iran fired missiles at Iraqi military bases housing US troops in retaliation for a drone strike at Baghdad airport that killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, one of Iran’s most powerful and influential military leaders.
Although Iran initially denied shooting down the airplane and refused to hand over its black box, intelligence officials from different countries persisted in their insistence that the Ukrainian airplane was shot down ‘unintentionally’.
The flight, bound for the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, had 167 passengers and nine crew members from various countries. Among the crash victims were 82 Iranians, at least 63 Canadians, and 11 Ukrainians.