Khamenei and ‘Making a Mistake’ Over the Downing of a Passenger Aircraft

Khamenei once told America, when it described the downing of a passenger aircraft as a mistake, “You made a mistake, you were wrong.” Now the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps under his command has confessed to “mistakenly” targeting the Ukrainian aircraft.

Three days ago (Wednesday morning, December 18 / January 8), a passenger aircraft of Ukraine International Airlines shortly after takeoff from “Imam Khomeini” airport crashed, killing all 176 passengers on board, most of whom were Iranian and Canadian citizens.

From the very first hours after the incident, news and rumors spread about the Boeing 737 being targeted by an air defense system deployed in the area, which senior military and political officials of the Islamic Republic vehemently denied.

Soon after the plane crashed, American media reported, citing sources from the U.S. Department of Defense (Pentagon), satellite monitoring of Iran’s air defense missiles and their possible accidental hit on the aircraft.

Reports also circulated on social media based on video footage and analysis of images released from the wreckage of the crashed aircraft, all suggesting a high likelihood that the aircraft had been targeted, but Iranian political and military officials continued to issue denials and contradictory statements.

Denials and Threats to Journalists

Ali Abedzadeh, head of the country’s aviation organization, called the crash due to a collision with an air defense system missile “impossible” on a television program, and Hossam-al-Din Ashena, cultural adviser to President Hassan Rouhani, described reports on this matter as “psychological warfare” and threatened Iranian journalists outside the country not to engage with it.

These responses faced numerous critical reactions both inside and outside the country. Bahram Parsaei, representative of Shiraz in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, wrote Thursday evening, referring to the “hasty and unprofessional” statements of some officials, that such conduct questions the work of accident investigators.

Vadym Prystaiko, foreign minister of Ukraine, wrote on Friday, January 10, in a tweet that the United States had provided “important information” to Kyiv about the crash of the Ukrainian aircraft.

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, also said a day after the incident that through various sources he had received information confirming that Iran’s air defense missile hit the Ukrainian airline aircraft.

Pressure for Transparency and Prevention of Cover-up

Meanwhile, senior officials from many countries, including Germany, Sweden, Canada, Britain, France, and Ukraine, called on the Islamic Republic to clarify the cause of Wednesday morning’s incident without cover-up.

However, this cover-up continued until three days after the Ukrainian airline crash, until finally Saturday morning, December 21, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic announced in a statement that “human error” by the Revolutionary Guards was the cause of the targeting and crash of the Ukrainian airline aircraft.

Shortly after, the leader of the Islamic Republic, Ali Khamenei, as commander-in-chief of the forces and the appointer of the head of this staff, and other commanders of military and law enforcement forces also reacted to Wednesday morning’s incident in a statement and offered condolences to the survivors of the victims.

Khamenei in June 1991, on the third anniversary of an almost similar incident in which an Iranian passenger aircraft over the Persian Gulf was “mistakenly” targeted by a missile attack from a U.S. Navy warship, made remarks that many social media users are now resharing the video of.

“You Were Wrong, You Made a Mistake”

In that speech, a video excerpt of which, including on the “Historical Memory” Twitter page, was published, Ali Khamenei addressed Americans who had admitted their mistake in downing the Iranian aircraft, saying: “You were wrong, you made a mistake. What does making a mistake mean?”

The leader of the Islamic Republic in his statement spoke of “proving human error” in the downing of the Ukrainian passenger aircraft but makes no reference to the Revolutionary Guards forces who committed this “error.”

Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Aerospace Force of the Revolutionary Guards, on Saturday in a television interview took responsibility for Wednesday morning’s incident and said that an operator of the Revolutionary Guards’ air defense system “mistakenly identified” the Ukrainian passenger aircraft as a cruise missile and fired at it.

Khamenei’s Awareness and His Role in Three-Day Cover-up?

Hajizadeh was appointed to this position about ten years ago by order of Ali Khamenei. On November 4, 2009, Khamenei wrote in his order to the new commander of the Aerospace Force: “It is expected that you will bring the readiness and combat capability of the force to the desired level while observing the strict requirements and operational regulations.”

This official says that on Wednesday morning during the targeting of the Ukrainian aircraft, the matter was reported to higher-ranking officials.

These higher levels logically include the General Staff of the Armed Forces and its commander Khamenei. Hajizadeh attributed the public’s unawareness of the truth to the “quarantine” of informed individuals by the General Staff of the Armed Forces until the completion of the accident investigation.

“Quarantine” refers to preventing external dissemination of news. It is not credible that the General Staff would have subjected Ali Khamenei, as commander-in-chief of the forces, to this restriction as well.

On this basis, Khamenei must have been informed of the “mistake” of his subordinates in this matter much earlier, and it is quite possible that the three-day cover-up was also by his order.

Source: DW