Families of Ukrainian Plane Victims React Angrily to Zarif’s Remarks
Mohammad Javad Zarif’s phone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart regarding statements made by an Iranian parliamentarian about the downing of Flight 752 by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has faced backlash from the families of victims. They say innocent passengers are buried underground while Zarif is engaged in negotiations.
“Innocent passengers of a plane lie in graves, killers appear on television as national heroes defending the supreme leader’s residence, and those protesting the crime are in prison. The foreign minister continues to negotiate.” This is part of a tweet by Hamed Esmaeilion, spokesman for the families of Flight 752 victims, in response to a phone call on Monday, April 27, between Zarif and his Ukrainian counterpart Kolba Dmytro.
In a phone conversation about the downing of the Ukrainian aircraft by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s foreign minister denied the claims of Hassan Norouzi, spokesman for the parliamentary legal and judicial commission, who had claimed in an interview with the newspaper “Hamdeleli” on April 7 that the movement of passenger aircraft 752 was “suspicious” and “control of this aircraft was in America’s hands.” He also claimed that contrary to the statements of Iranian officials, no one has been arrested or detained in connection with the aircraft downing case.
Following these statements, Vadym Prystayko, Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, strongly condemned Hassan Norouzi’s remarks and demanded a “swift response” from the Iranian government regarding their content. He considered these statements to be pure disrespect to the victims of the mentioned aircraft downing.
Now Mohammad Javad Zarif, after a three-week gap, in a phone conversation with the foreign minister while denying the claims of the parliamentary legal and judicial commission spokesman, reassured his Ukrainian counterpart that this is “not the official position of the government.”
In Iranian media, the news of Mohammad Javad Zarif’s phone conversation with Kolba Dmytro was published only in a few lines without explaining its content. For example, Khabar Online wrote on Monday: “Mohammad Javad Zarif and Kolba Dmytro, foreign ministers of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Ukraine, discussed the latest developments in bilateral relations, combating the coronavirus outbreak, and the case of the Ukrainian aircraft crash in a phone conversation a few minutes ago.” ISNA wrote nothing more than: “Mohammad Javad Zarif and Kolba Dmytro, foreign ministers of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Ukraine, discussed the latest developments in bilateral relations, combating the coronavirus outbreak, and the case of the Ukrainian aircraft crash in a phone conversation a few minutes ago.”
However, both the manner of publishing this news and the content of the conversation faced anger from social media users and especially the families of the plane victims. In particular, the publication of news that the Islamic Republic is trying to prevent Ukraine from pursuing the case by paying money doubled the families’ anger. On the hundredth day of the downing of Flight 752, news was published indicating that Iran was seeking to reach an understanding with the governments of Ukraine and Canada so that these countries would drop their legal and criminal prosecution of the incident in exchange for receiving money.
Leila Latifi, mother of one of the victims of Ukraine’s Flight 752, asked on Twitter: “How much did you pay for every moment of my son’s beautiful smile?”
On December 8, passenger aircraft 752 of Ukraine International Airlines was shot down by two missiles fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran. 176 passengers and crew members on this flight were killed. Islamic Republic officials spent three days with various excuses trying to prove the crash was due to technical defects. They were finally forced to tell the truth under international pressure. However, according to the families of the victims, not all the truth has been revealed yet, and there is still much doubt and ambiguity regarding the delivery of the aircraft’s black box to a third country.
After the Islamic Republic unveiled how the Ukrainian aircraft was shot down, Iran’s judiciary announced the arrest of several people in connection with this matter and promised that a “detailed” investigation was underway regarding this case. To date, no results of these investigations have been reported. Even Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC’s aerospace force who took responsibility for this tragedy, was referred to as a “hero” in the Islamic Republic’s media.
Even after admitting their role in downing the Ukrainian aircraft, government media continued to try to somehow blame America for this crime. For example, Mashregh News, a website close to hardliners, wrote on December 21 that this attack took place because “due to an unprecedented increase in aerial activities in the region, the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran were placed on the highest level of alert to respond to potential threats” and “in such sensitive and critical conditions, Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 took off from Imam Khomeini Airport and during the turn was positioned in a manner approaching a sensitive military center of the IRGC and at an altitude and flight pattern of an enemy target, which under these circumstances, due to human error and unintentionally, the said aircraft was hit.”
This is while Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC’s aerospace force, recently said in an interview: “The day we struck Ain Al-Assad, we expected them to retaliate… and we had also prepared 400 targets to strike.” However, he did not explain why, with such expectations, they did not cancel commercial flights and create the catastrophe of downing the Ukrainian aircraft.
Source: DW
