MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/. Ukraine International Airlines passenger plane was downed by the Iranian military due to an unintentional error, Acting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday during a news conference on the outcomes of Russian diplomacy in 2019.
"I don’t want to make excuses for anyone, it was a human error. I think everyone understood already that this was unintentional," he said, noting that Iran has recognized its mistake. The acting minister expressed confidence that Tehran would compensate the families of all victims of the crash. "I wish this [incident] never happened," the acting minister lamented.
"But the Americans assassinated [Commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force Qasem] Soleimani in an unprecedented operation that violates the principles of international law," he continued. "The Iranians responded promptly, warning Iraq. Some media outlets inform that the Americans were also warned," Lavrov continued. "There are reports that after the attack (on a US base in Iraq - TASS), the Iranians expected a US strike, but they did not know in what form. At least six F-35 (US fighter jets - TASS) were reportedly in the airspace near the Iranian border." The diplomat noted that this information needed to be verified, highlighting "the nervous tensions always present in such situations."
Tensions in the Middle East escalated following a US drone strike near Baghdad's airport on January 3, which killed General Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force. In the early hours of January 8, Iran carried out missile strikes on Iraq’s Ain Al-Asad air base and a facility in Erbil, which house US troops, in retaliation for the attack.
On January 8, Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 travelling from Tehran to Kiev crashed near the Iranian capital shortly after takeoff from the Imam Khomeini International Airport. All people onboard, 167 passengers and 9 crewmembers, were killed. On January 11, Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff released a statement admitting the plane had been mistakenly shot down. According to Iranian Brigadier-General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, the plane was misidentified as a cruise missile by the air defense force.