{"id":114953,"date":"2021-02-24T13:34:16","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T05:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=114953"},"modified":"2021-02-24T13:35:52","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T05:35:52","slug":"un-expert-says-iran-lied-in-downing-of-ukraine-airliner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=114953","title":{"rendered":"UN expert says Iran lied in downing of Ukraine airliner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Authorities work at the scene of a crashed Ukrainian plane in Shahedshahr last year<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A UN official accused Iran of lying in its explanation of how it shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet near Tehran last year at a time of acute tension with the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Jan 8, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 crashed shortly after taking off from Iran’s capital Tehran killing all 176 people aboard, including 55 Canadians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran admitted three days later that its forces mistakenly shot down the Kiev-bound Boeing 737-800 plane after firing two missiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agnes Callamard, a special UN rapporteur on extra-judicial killings, unveiled the results of a probe into the tragedy and said the Iranian explanation of what went wrong is full of contradictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The most troubling thing is that the explanations by the Iranian authorities about the mistake or mistakes that were made do not add up,” she told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the Iranian version of events is “full of contradictions. They are contradicted by the facts, by the technical assessments of many experts.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Why does Iran lie? Because there is no other term to use,” said Callamard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She cited what she said were Iranian statements about the “visual approach” of the aircraft and “instructions on the radar systems.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Callamard said Iran has failed to explain how its military could make such a huge mistake as to shoot down a passenger plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Callamard said that under international law it is possible to “kill by mistake” and that jurisprudence determines if the error was committed in good faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My conclusion is that on the basis of international law, error is not a defense for Iran,” said Callamard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said Iran had not answered the questions she asked as part of her investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UN experts like her are affiliated with the UN Security Council but this body is not bound by their conclusions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tensions between Iran and the US were soaring at the time of the downing of the Ukrainian jetliner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iranian air defenses were on high alert for a US counter-attack after Tehran fired missiles at a military base in Iraq that was used by US forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those missiles were fired in response to the killing of General Qasem Soleimani, who headed the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in a US drone strike near Baghdad’s international airport. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A UN official accused Iran of lying in its explanation of how it shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet near Tehran last year at a time of acute tension with the US. On Jan 8, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 crashed shortly after taking off from Iran’s capital […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":114957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,215,209,217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114953"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/114957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}