After Iran admitted shooting down the Ukrainian plane, there are big angry protests in Tehran. The Iranian regime has the British ambassador arrested in the country.
Photo series with 11 pictures
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Britain has been outraged by the temporary arrest of the British ambassador to Tehran. “The unfounded and unfounded arrest of our ambassadors in Tehran is an outrageous violation of international law,” said Foreign Minister Dominic Raab on Saturday evening.
Ambassador Rob Macaire was arrested for a few hours on Saturday, according to the Tasnim news agency. Tasnim wrote that he had provoked the demonstrators outside Amir Kabir University to carry out “radical actions”. After “a few hours” he was released. Macaire itself stated that it took part in the rally to commemorate the victims of the crash, including British. According to his own statements, he left the event after five minutes when slogans were called. He emphasized that he did not take part in a demonstration.
Macaire was nevertheless summoned to the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday. He had been informed that his participation in an “illegal rally” violated diplomatic regulations. The participation had nothing to do with his obligations as a representative of his country, according to the foreign ministry, according to a report by the state news agency IRNA, the diplomat.
Britain’s Foreign Minister Raab said: “The Iranian government is at a crossroads.” They could continue their march towards outsider status, with all political and economic isolation. Or it could take de-escalating steps and move forward in a diplomatic way.
Angry protests in Tehran
After the confession of the Iran it has been accidentally shot in Tehran There were protests against the government. On Saturday evening several hundred people gathered at the universities of Tehran, Amir Kabir and Sharif to commemorate the 176 dead.
The commemoration turned into an angry protest: the demonstrators described the Iranian government as a “liar” and called on those responsible for the shooting down and the day-long denial to resign. Videos were shown on Twitter, in which demonstrators also called for the resignation of Iran’s religious and political leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
According to media reports, there have been protests in several parts of the Iranian capital Tehran over the shooting down of the Ukrainian passenger plane by the Iranian military. (Source: dpa)
The Iranian news agency Fars reported that the demonstrations were broken up by the police. The students had called “harmful” and “radical” chants, wrote Fars, who is close to the conservatives in Iran. According to the report, some students also tore down a poster of General Ghassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone attack in Iraq a week ago. Fars said the number of demonstrators was up to 1,000.
Protests are said to have taken place again on Sunday. According to media reports, demonstrators gathered at Beheschti and Alarme Tabatabei universities. According to this, there were initially mourning ceremonies for the 176 fatalities, then the shooting was denounced and the days-long cover-up of the facts by the Iranian authorities and media. Many called for the resignation of those responsible, it was said. These recordings from Beheschti University spread on Twitter:
Video of Iranian protesters in #Tehran refusing to step on #US and #Israel flags.
Full story: https://t.co/M1lMrIkPoj#IranProtests #IranPlaneCrash # Jan20Protests pic.twitter.com/HC73KdDuuN
– IranWire (@IranWireEnglish) January 12, 2020
Iran speaks of “unforgivable incident”
After days of denial, Iran admitted on Saturday that it was responsible for the crash of flight PS752. The military shot the machine unintentionally, it was a human error, it said in a press release. President Hassan Ruhani expressed regret, promised a thorough investigation, and said, “This unforgivable incident must be prosecuted legally.” The families of the victims should be compensated.
Memory of the Dead: Most of the victims of the crash were Iranian-born Canadians. (Source: Ebrahim Noroozi / AP / dpa)
In a phone call with his Ukrainian colleague Volodymyr Selenskyj Ruhani officially apologized to Ukraine for the accidental shooting. “Admitting the ‘missile version’ as the cause of the disaster has opened the way for the investigation to continue without delays and disabilities,” said Selensky, a statement said. Kiev will send an official note to Tehran, among other things, with compensation claims.
In a video message, Selenskyj once again explained why the Ukrainian government had previously reacted cautiously to the suspicion of being shot down. “We worked systematically and without hysteria for one goal: to clarify the truth about the circumstances of the aircraft disaster.” Previously, the opposition had accused him of not immediately joining the shooting allegations made by the United States and other western countries.
Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) said after talking to Kremlin chief Wladimir Putin in Moscow, it is good that those responsible are known. “But it remains a dramatic event.”
Commander: “I wish I’d rather be dead myself”
Regarding the event, a commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard declared that the Ukrainian passenger plane approached a strategically important military facility on Wednesday, was accidentally classified as an enemy cruise missile and was finally shot down. The Revolutionary Guard’s air and space commander, Amir Ali Hajisadeh, said the officer in charge wanted to report the danger to headquarters, but at that point there was a defect in the communications system. According to Hajisade, the officer had only a few seconds to decide whether to fire an anti-aircraft missile or not. “And unfortunately he did, which led to the accident,” said the commander. “When I found out about it, I wished that I preferred to be dead myself instead of witnessing this accident,” said Hajisadeh.
Airplane crash near Tehran: The pictures are to show the moment of the alleged plane launch. (Source: t-online.de)
The Iranian press release also said that the person responsible for the shooting would be brought before a military court. The armed forces apologized to the victim families and promised that such a “mistake” would no longer occur.
Iran’s top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also regretted the shooting down. “The human error in the incident is extremely unfortunate and my deepest sympathy goes to the families of the victims,” he said, according to the Irna state news agency. He demanded complete reconnaissance from the armed forces.
Sarif: Tensions with the USA contributed to the bliss
Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Sarif wrote on Twitter about a “sad day”. He apologized to the families of the victims and the Iranian population. He further wrote: “Human error in times of crisis, caused by the adventurousness of the United States, has led to this disaster.” Ruhani also tried to justify the shooting down with the military tensions with the United States.
The European Union asked Iran to take consequences of the accidental shooting. “Appropriate measures must be taken to ensure that such a terrible accident can never happen again,” said EU Commission spokesman Peter Stano in Brussels on Saturday. After corresponding promises from Iranian President Hassan Ruhani, the EU expects Tehran to continue to cooperate fully and to investigate comprehensively and transparently according to international standards how this tragedy could have happened.
Anger on social media
Iranian citizens reacted with anger and disappointment on social media. They were particularly upset because of the many official denials in the days before. A user wrote on Twitter: “I would have preferred to have died in the machine, then I would not have experienced this embarrassment as an Iranian.”
Several teams of foreign experts, including one from Boeing, had been invited to Tehran to work with Iranian and Ukrainian experts to investigate the machine’s black boxes. The investigation then began on Friday.
Since the incident, several foreign airlines, including Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines, have canceled their flights to Tehran. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) advised against flights crashing over Iran.
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