Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he has intelligence that indicates a passenger plane that crashed in Iran was shot down.
He described the crash as a “tragedy that not only shocked Canada, but the rest of the world”.
Mr Trudeau added: “We have intelligence from multiple sources, including our allies and our own intelligence.
“The evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile. This may well have been unintentional.
Iran denies the reports, with government spokesman Ali Rabiei describing it as a “psychological warfare against Iran”, according to state TV.
He added: “All those countries whose citizens were aboard the plane can send representatives and we urge Boeing to send its representative to join the process of investigating the black box”.
Mr Trudeau’s comments came after US officials said they were “confident” the passenger plane that came down in Tehran was shot down by an Iranian missile, with President Donald Trump saying “somebody could have made a mistake”.
One official said US satellites had detected the launch of two missiles shortly before the plane crashed, followed by evidence of an explosion, Reuters news agency reported.
Two other officials said Washington believed the downing of the Ukraine International Airlines plane was accidental.
All 176 people – including three British nationals – were killed in the crash. Downing Street has said that four of them were British nationals.
Many of the passengers had been heading for Canada.
Mr Trudeau also said Iran had indicated it will keep black boxes in Iran, but have told Ukraine’s president that its investigators will be granted access.
He said his government will not rest until it gets closure, transparency, accountability and justice, but that it is too soon to be “apportioning blame for the crash” or drawing any conclusions.
“Canada is working with its allies to ensure that an indepth investigation is conducted so that we can uncover the causes of this tragic crash,” he said
Iran’s civil aviation chief has rejected as “illogical rumours” reports that the Ukrainian plane that crashed south of the capital Tehran was hit by missiles.
Head of Iran Civil Aviation Organization Ali Abedzadeh made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Press TV on Thursday, adding, “From a scientific viewpoint, it is impossible that a missile hit the Ukrainian plane.”
“The plane caught fire three minutes into the flight, according to what the witnesses have reported and the data collected from the parts of the airplane,” Abedzadeh told Press TV.
“The pilot tried to return the airplane at the altitude of 8,000 ft., but due to the fire, the airplane crashed and exploded,” he added.
“We can say that the airplane, considering the kind of the crash and the pilot’s efforts to return it to Imam Khomeini airport, didn’t explode in the air. So, the allegation that it was hit by missiles is totally ruled out,” the official noted.
Asked if the cause of the crash was to be determined after a probe, Abedzadeh said, “According to international regulations, it is the responsibility of the country, where the incident happened, to probe into the incident. So Iran Civil Aviation Organization is in charge.”
“But because the airplane was Ukrainian, Ukraine is obliged to cooperate with us, and has started cooperation. Their team of experts has arrived in Tehran, and we have coordinated the issue with them on different aspects. Iranian experts and the Ukrainian ones have had a meeting so that we could determine the cause of the incident in cooperation with the Ukrainian side.”
The Ukraine International Airlines flight, en route to Kiev and carrying mostly Iranians and Iranian-Canadians, crashed hours after Iran fired missiles at bases housing US forces in Iraq, leading some to speculate that the plane may have been hit. – Agency report.
