US President Donald Trump conveyed similar "suspicions" on Thursday, saying that "somebody could have made a mistake."
With an unfortunate note, Iran has admitted that it 'unintentionally' shot down the Ukrainian aircraft which crashed earlier this week. Iranian state TV, citing military sources, reported the news on Saturday, adding that the Ukrainian jetliner had flown close to a sensitive military site and was brought down due to "human error".
Iran's Foreign Minister Javed Zarif posted a note of remorse from his official handle on Twitter and said that the human error came at a "time of crisis caused by US adventurism".
"A sad day. Preliminary conclusions of internal investigation by Armed Forces: Human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster. Our profound regrets, apologies and condolences to our people, to the families of all victims, and to other affected nations," the tweet read.
President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, has also expressed deep regret, on part of the Islamic Republic of Iran, over the 'disastrous mistake'.
Those responsible for shooting down the Ukrainian jet in Tehran this week would "immediately" be brought before military justice, the general staff of the Iranian armed forces said Saturday. "We assure you that by pursuing fundamental reforms in operational processes at the armed forces' level we will make it impossible to repeat such errors," the general staff added in a press release.
According to the latest updates, Ukraine's president has demanded an official apology and compensation from Iran.
This comes after Iran had, for several days, denied accusations of downing the aircraft. On Wednesday, Iran had said it will not hand over the black box of the crashed Ukrainian airline jet to US planemaker Boeing. While the first statement by Ukraine's embassy in Iran referred to engine failure, its second statement said the causes had not been disclosed and that any previous comments were not official.
However, intelligence reports in the United States and Canada put the blame on Iran for 'mistakenly' shooting down the Ukrainian jetliner. CBS News reported that intelligence officials have evidence to back up the belief. The report said that US intelligence picked up signals of a radar being turned on, detected two surface-to-air missile launches just before the plane exploded.
US President Donald Trump conveyed similar "suspicions" on Thursday, saying that "somebody could have made a mistake."
Reacting to the incident, the chairman of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee said that Iran must "learn lessons" from the disaster. "If decryption of the black boxes and the work of the investigation do not prove that the Iranian army did this intentionally, and there are no logical reasons for this, the incident must be closed. Hoping that lessons will be learned and action taken by all parties," said Konstantin Kosachev, as quoted by the Interfax news agency.
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also said on Saturday that closure and accountability were needed in the wake of the incident. He also demanded "transparency and justice for the families and loved ones of the victims," of whom many were Canadian dual nationals. "This is a national tragedy, and all Canadians are mourning together," Trudeau's office said in a statement.
The plane was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members from different countries including 82 Iranian nationals. There were also 11 Ukrainians and 63 Canadians on board the flight.
Boeing 737 jet of Ukraine International Airlines crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport on Wednesday, killing all 176 people aboard.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Iran:")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}