• The Ukrainian boeing shot down by two Iranian missiles: a new video shows the double impact
  • Iran: first arrests for Boeing shooting down. Rohani: all those responsible will be punished
  • Iran, very high tension: new day of protests, riot forces deployed

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January 15, 2020Iranian President Hassan Rohani has launched an appeal for national unity "in light of protests that broke out in the country after the admission that it was the Iranian antiaircraft that shot down the Ukrainian plane. The Iranian leader asked the armed forces to "apologize" for the tragedy provoked. For days, there have been protests against the regime by students in the universities of Tehran, and yesterday news spread that the man who filmed the shooting down of the Ukrainian plane, which took place on 8 January just minutes after taking off from Tehran airport.

Ahead of the February elections in Iran, President Hassan Rohani argued that "the people want diversity", urging the authorities in charge of validating the candidates not to go overboard with exclusions. Rohani then recalled that "the people are our master and we are his servants. The servant must address the master with modesty, precision and honesty".

The British ambassador to Tehran, Rob Macaire, would have left Iran. The Iranian news agency Tasnim reports it on Twitter, without giving details. the news came after a spokesman for the Iranian judicial authority, Gholam Hosseini Ismail, said the ambassador had to be deported for participating in a protest demonstration against the government. On Saturday, Ambassador Macaire was detained for 30 minutes by police for attending a gathering outside Tehran University. The authorities say it was an illegal protest against the government, while the diplomat defended himself saying it was a vigil for the 176 victims of the shot-down Ukrainian plane, including British citizens.