The circumstances surrounding the crash of Ukraine Airlines Boeing 737 on Wednesday near Tehran are the subject of new controversy between Washington and Tehran. President of the United States Donald Trump on Thursday (January 9th) expressed his "doubts" about the reasons for the plane crash when, according to several media sources, American officials are convinced that the plane was shot down by mistake.
"I have my doubts," said the American president, when asked about the reasons for the crash of this airliner, which killed 176 people. "I have the feeling that something terrible has happened," he added during an exchange with journalists at the White House.
The disaster came shortly after Tehran fired missiles at bases used by the US military in Iraq.
For their part, Iranian authorities have said that "rumors" that the plane was shot down by a missile "make no sense". "Scientifically, there is no way a missile could have hit the Ukrainian plane," said Ali Abedzadeh, Iranian civil aviation official, quoted by the semi-official news agency Isna, also speaking of "illogical rumors" .
The Boeing of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) took off Wednesday morning from Tehran towards Kiev before crashing two minutes later, killing the 176 people on board, mainly Iranians and Canadians.
About fifty Ukrainian experts arrived in Tehran on Thursday to participate in the investigation and in particular the decryption of the black boxes of the Boeing.
With AFP and Reuters
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