West blaming Iran for plane crash 'without a shred of evidence'
Ahmed Kaballo
Press TV, London
In the midst of an international standoff between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States following the US assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Suleimani and the refusal from the United States to grant Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif a visa to attend a United Nations Security Council meeting, a passenger plane crashed in Iran's capital.
The Ukrainian International Airlines flight crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran on Wednesday, killing all 176 passengers and crew members on board.
Victims included 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians as well as nationals from Sweden, the UK, Afghanistan and Germany.
The Pentagon have claimed that their intelligence indicates Iran was responsible for the downing of the Ukrainian passenger plane on Wednesday.
But the Islamic Republic has said these claims are an example of “psychological warfare” directed from Washington and has called on countries that lost citizens in the crash to send representatives to aid the investigation.
The investigation is ongoing and Iran has stated that no comment can be made about the cause of the plane crash until the data is fully extracted from the black box.
Yet that has not stopped US officials, Canadian officials and many media outlets from attributing the blame on Iran's door.
How the events of the last 10 days have impacted relations between the Islamic Republic and the Western signatories of the JCPOA agreement will be clearer over time but what is clear right now is that Iran will not appreciate being blamed for downing of a passenger plane killing 176 people without a shred of evidence.
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