Iran no longer wishes to share with Ukraine the clues gathered by the Iranian investigation into the accident of the Ukrainian airliner shot down in Tehran on January 8, said the head of the Iranian investigation team, Hassan Rezaeifar quoted Monday February 3 by the semi-official agency Mehr.
In question, Tehran did not digest the diffusion by the Ukrainian media of an audio recording transmitted by Iran to the Ukrainian experts within the framework of the joint investigation between the two countries.
In this confidential recording, broadcast by a Ukrainian television channel on Sunday evening, we can hear the pilot of an airplane, when the Ukrainian International Airlines plane is shot down near the capital, declare: "Is this a active area? There are lights that look like a missile. "
Zelensky accuses Iran of immediately knowing that a missile had shot down the plane
After having denied responsibility for three days, Iran had finally admitted to having shot down the plane, explaining that it had mistakenly taken it for an enemy aircraft while the Islamic Republic was on alert against possible American strikes.
Iran immediately learned on January 8 that it had destroyed a Ukrainian airliner with a missile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday February 3 after the audio recording was broadcast in Ukrainian media.
In a television interview, Volodymyr Zelensky said that the tape released on Sunday "proves that the Iranian side knew from the start that our plane was shot down by a missile".
Pilot describes "light that looks like a missile"
"(The pilot) says: 'it seems to me that a missile is flying'. He says it in both Persian and English, everything is clear here," added the Ukrainian head of state.
In the recording, the pilot of the Iranian company Aseman questions the control tower:
- Is it an active area? There are lights that look like a missile. Is there something ? He says.
- Nothing has been reported to us. What does this light look like? replies the air traffic controller.
"It is the light of a missile," said the pilot.
We then hear the control tower trying in vain to contact the Ukrainian airliner by radio. The pilot of the Iranian plane later declares to have seen "a big explosion". "I saw it extremely well. I really don't know what it was."
With Reuters and AFP
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