Iran Blames the US in Public Campaign Over Ukraine Passenger Plane Crash

"The Situation Was Irregular at the Time... The Heated Side Was the United States"
Iran Government Claims Public Deceived by Machine Malfunction Announcement

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] Regarding the downing of the Ukrainian passenger plane, Iran is shifting its stance and conducting a public opinion campaign by placing responsibility on the United States.

On the 14th, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani asked, "The Iranian people know well that the cause of this tragedy was human error, but who created the environment that led to this incident?" He emphasized, "It is clear that the side that created and intensified the abnormal situation at the time was the United States."

Although the fact that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard shot down the passenger plane with a missile due to 'human error' remains unchanged, the logic is that such an incident would not have occurred under normal circumstances. They claim that the accidental tragedy happened amid heightened tensions equivalent to a wartime level after Iran carried out a retaliatory attack on the 8th, the day of the incident, in response to the assassination of Commander Qassem Soleimani. In other words, the United States provided the fundamental cause of this passenger plane downing.

President Hassan Rouhani continued, "The United States assassinated Commander Soleimani as a terrorist because he was supported throughout the Middle East (which is oppressed by the U.S.) and thwarted American conspiracies," adding, "We will never forget the grave crime of the United States, and the entire Middle East will not ease tensions until U.S. troops withdraw."

This recalls the explosion of Commander Soleimani, criticized as a reckless 'strategic blunder' by the United States, and reemphasizes the agenda of 'U.S. troop withdrawal.'

However, as it became clear that the initial government announcement attributing the Ukrainian passenger plane crash to a 'mechanical failure' was false and that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard shot down the plane with a missile, the Iranian people are pouring criticism on the government.

According to foreign media, on the 15th, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said at the Raisina Dialogue, a regional political security conference hosted by the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in New Delhi, India, "The Iranian people are protesting because they feel they were deceived by 'lies' regarding the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's downing of the Ukrainian passenger plane."

Minister Zarif explained that after the Ukrainian passenger plane was shot down due to an unintended mistake, the Iranian people perceived that they had been deceived for several days.