MP criticizes contradictions about plane crash

A government spokesman issued a statement saying the accident investigation committee would provide transparent information. A member of parliament, however, criticized the officials' contradictory statements about the downed plane's black box.

In a statement issued on Thursday evening, January 9, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei invited Boeing to Iran as an aircraft manufacturer, without mentioning the US by name, and said: "We also ask Boeing to send its representative to participate in the black box examination process."

Mr. Rabiei also advised the United States to "pay attention to the results of the committees' investigations instead of lying and creating a psychological operation."

In connection with the Ukrainian plane crash on Friday, January 9, a video was also published in the New York Times newspaper showing the moment a missile hit the Ukrainian plane in Iranian skies. The New York Times wrote that the Ukrainian Airlines passenger plane was hit by an Iranian missile minutes after taking off from Tehran.

Trudeau: Canada has information that plane was shot down by Iranian missile

Ali Rabiei did not mention in his statement the position of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau regarding the "downing of the plane by Iranian defenses."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that multiple intelligence sources, including Canada itself, have information indicating that the plane was shot down by an Iranian missile. Trudeau also said: "A comprehensive international investigation must be conducted at the scene of the incident, and Iranian authorities have shown so far that they understand the sensitivity of this issue."

The crash of the Ukrainian Boeing 737 killed 176 people, most of whom were Iranians and 63 were Canadian citizens.

Contradictory statements by Iranian officials

Ali Rabiei, the Iranian government spokesman, is the highest-ranking Iranian official to have responded to the Ukrainian plane crash. In a statement, he changed the government's previous position on not cooperating with Boeing and declared his readiness to cooperate with various parties, while once again categorically denying the possibility of a missile attack on the plane.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has so far remained silent about the plane crash, and Hassan Rouhani has only addressed the issue in contacts with foreign leaders. Leaders from other countries, including Ukraine, the United States, Canada, Britain, and Afghanistan, have expressed sympathy for the victims.

An Iranian parliament member has also accused the country's authorities of contradicting themselves about the "black box" of the downed plane.

Bahram Parsai, a Shiraz representative in the Iranian parliament, criticized the "hasty and unprofessional speech of the head of the Civil Aviation Organization and his appointed official on the accident investigation committee" in three tweets about the Ukrainian plane crash.

Mr. Parsai wrote in this regard why "contrary to ICAO rules, they declared a technical failure as the cause of the accident before reading the black box, increasing the ambiguities and questioning the accident investigation committee even more than before."

The Shiraz representative asked in his tweet, "What is the benefit of contradicting whether or not to hand over the black box to the manufacturing company, except to create confusion?"

Parsai also wrote in his latest tweet: "The hasty and unprofessional speech of the head of the Civil Aviation Organization and his appointed official in the accident investigation committee is not new. Contrary to ICAO rules, they declared a technical failure as the cause of the accident before reading the black box, increasing ambiguities and questioning the accident investigation committee even more than before."

Among those killed in the Ukrainian plane crash, Afghanistan is the third country with the most victims, after Iran and Canada.

The Afghan presidential press office issued a statement announcing that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had spoken to Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani over the phone. The statement said: “Ashraf Ghani expressed hope that Iranian authorities would cooperate with Ukrainian authorities in a transparent investigation into the incident.”

Source: DW