Spokesman for the Iranian Administration Ali Rabiei condemned the US government for “spreading lies” about a Ukrainian airliner that crashed in northern Iran, saying Washington should wait for the results of the ongoing probe into the Boeing 737 crash.
In a statement late on Thursday, Rabiei offered his condolences to the bereaved families of the victims of the doomed airliner that crashed near Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport.
“The Civil Aviation Organization of Islamic Republic of Iran has now set up a committee to probe into the incident in accordance with ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) regulations,” he stated.
The committee, including experts from all countries involved in the plane crash, will transparently and accurately investigate the accident from all technical aspects and will announce the results completely, the spokesman went on to say.
He further rejected the US officials’ claim that the airliner has been shoot down by Iran saying the US government is well-advised to pay close attention to the results of the probe by the international committee instead of “spreading lies and launching a psychological operation”.
The remarks came as some US, Canadian, and British officials said Thursday the cause of the jet’s crash was a missile fired from Iran in the hours after the country had launched other missiles at bases housing US troops.
The victims of Wednesday’s crash included 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans, and three British nationals.
All 179 people on board the Boeing 737, including nine crew, were killed when the jetliner crashed shortly after takeoff from the airport on Wednesday morning.
The plane operated by Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) was bound for Kiev.
Source: Mehr News Agency
