The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Monday lashed out at Canada for misusing the unfortunate downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane on January 8 near Tehran, saying the Ottawa government “is trading” with the grief of the bereaved families.
An Iranian air defense unit mistakenly shot down Flight 752 of the Ukrainian International Airlines shortly after take-off from Tehran en route to Kiev.
167 passengers and 9 crew members were killed in the downing. The victims included 82 Iranians, 63 Iranian-Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans, and three British nationals.
The operator had mistaken the Boeing 737-800 with a cruise missile at a time when the air defense systems were at the highest level of alert following the United States’ earlier assassination of prominent Iranian Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told a press conference that since the first day of the incident Canada has acted irresponsibly in the process of investigation into the incident.
“Their behavior has been quite political and nonlegal,” Khatibzadeh pointed out.
Khatibzadeh’s reprimand came less than a week after remarks by Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne concerning the tragic incident.
Speaking to CBC News Network, Champagne alleged that he did not believe that the mistaken downing of the airliner by Iran’s air defense “can be blamed on human error”.
According to Press TV, Champagne also said he was concerned about the quality of information that was to be released by Iran about the tragedy.
“I invite the Canadian foreign minister and government to observe diplomatic manners and know their limits and positions,” Khatibzadeh said, “Otherwise they will receive a different response.”
Mohsen Baharvand, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, told the Tehran Times in November that Canada’s unilateral steps and statements against Iran on the plane crash is hampering Tehran’s efforts to clarify the truth.
Describing Canada’s behavior against Iran as “strange”, Baharvand said the Canadian government has begun to take unilateral actions in order to “politicize” the plane crash incident.
“Strangely, the Canadian government has begun to take unilateral actions, and we see no good reason for that except that Canada intends to politicize the issue,” the deputy foreign minister for legal affairs lamented.
Baharvand said, “In meetings between the foreign ministers of two countries, we have explained what cooperation Iran had done and their representatives visited the area where the plane crashed.”
He added, “They participated in reading of the black box of the plane in Paris and any other cooperation. Iran has provided any necessary cooperation with Canada and other parties.”
In his Monday press briefing, Khatibzadeh added Iran had not missed a single date in completing its investigation into the tragedy with the help of all of its relevant bodies in line with its domestic and international responsibilities.
