A senior Iranian security official said on Sunday Iran had no intention to conceal the cause of the crash of a Ukrainian airliner which the Iranian military admitted it had mistakenly shot down, the state-run IRIB news agency reported.
“From the start, there was no intention to conceal the causes of the accident, especially since its nature and technical characteristics … make it virtually impossible to conceal,” the secretary of Iran’s top national security body, Ali Shamkhani, was quoted as saying by IRIB.
However, on Saturday, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said he knew a missile had brought down the aircraft the same day it happened and accepted full responsibility, saying his force had acted in error while on alert for “all-out war.”
Iran had for days denied a missile hit the Boeing 737-800 on Wednesday shortly after taking off from Tehran, sending it crashing to the ground and killing all 176 people aboard.
“I wish I could die and not witness such an accident,” the head of the Guards‘ aerospace division, Amirali Hajizadeh, said on state television.
On Saturday, Iran admitted that its military “unintentionally” shot down the Ukrainian jetliner, killing all occupants on board, including 57 Canadians.
In a statement, Iran’s military said “human error” was to blame for the incident.
Iran’s statement said the country’s military was on high alert due to “unprecedented threats” from the U.S., which had ordered a strike that killed top-ranking Iranian military officer, Gen. Qassam Soleimani, on Jan. 3.
According to the statement, the airliner was approaching a “sensitive military base” belonging to the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps after takeoff.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “furious” and “outraged” by the downing of the aircraft, and called on Iran to take “full responsibility” for the incident.
“I am of course outraged and furious that families across the country are grieving their loved ones, that the Iranian-Canadian community is suffering so greatly, that all Canadians are shocked and appalled by this senseless loss of life,” he said.
In a phone call, Trudeau said he expressed to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that a “full and complete” investigation must be conducted and that it is “absolutely necessary” that Canada be a participant.
Earlier on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he too had spoken with Rouhani, and that the two leaders had agreed to begin joint work on decoding the black boxes of the plane.
-With files from Global News’ Hannah Jackson and The Associated Press
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