Iran arrested an unspecified number of suspects in relation to the Ukrainian plane crash on Jan. 14, but experts said the arrests will not solve the crisis, and that the Iranian regime may still resort to further lies.
Iran’s Press TV reported on Jan. 14 that the Iranian Judiciary Commission detained a number of suspects “for their role in the plane crash,” according to the Turkish Anadolu Agency.
New York Times journalist and Iran expert Farnaz Fassihi reported on Twitter that the man who took video footage of the plane being struck by a missile was arrested.
Ali Bakeer, an Ankara-based Middle East Analyst, is of the opinion that the Iranian administration has arrested low-rank officials involved in the shooting of the plane and that the whole episode lacks transparency.
“I think arresting a few people with relatively low ranks will not solve the problem. To people, authorities that lie once, try hard to hide the evidence, and only confess under pressure and credible intel info, can always lie,” Bakeer told The Epoch Times.
The information about the arrests was released in a statement by the country’s judiciary commission spokesman Ghulam Hussein Ismaili, two days after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) acknowledged on Jan. 11 that it accidentally shot down the Ukrainian jetliner that crashed on Jan. 8.
“The whole operation was a fiasco. It uncovered the devastating incompetence of the regime,” said Bakeer.
After the crash, the Iranian government repeatedly denied Western accusations and mounting evidence that it was responsible for the crash that killed all 176 onboard, including 147 Iranians, according to the Tehran Times.
“The gap between the state and the mafia running the state which allowed such a tragic incident to occur in the first place is widening,” said Bakeer.
The plane was shot down hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on two military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq in retaliation for the killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani released a statement on Jan. 11 referring to the investigation in the case and called the incident a “mistaken shooting” by the Iranian army that was on “high alert” to defend itself from an American military response.
“In the atmosphere of threats and intimidation by the aggressive American regime against the Iranian nation after the martyrdom of General Qasem Soleimani, and in order to defend ourselves against possible attacks by the American Army, the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran were on full alert, which unfortunately led to this terrible catastrophe taking the lives of dozens of innocent people because of human error and mistaken shooting,” said Rouhani.
The country has witnessed widespread protests since Jan. 11, after its military confessed to the mistake. “I believe the Iranian regime is under immense internal pressure right now and this could drive it to be more aggressive, especially against the anti-regime protests,” said Bakeer.
Calls for International Investigation
While the Iranian government continued to push its anti-America narrative after the plane crash incident, many nations that lost their citizens in the crash demanded an international investigation. Experts, however, are of the opinion that the Iranian regime will most likely not accept one.
Those dead in the crash included 11 Ukrainians, 57 Canadians (including many Iranians with dual citizenship), 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans, and three Britons.
“I call on all international partners of Ukraine, the entire world community to be one and persistent until the full and final investigation into all the circumstances of this disaster. All of us need it,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement on Jan. 11.
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven called the incident “terrible and horrifying” and said his country is in touch with the governments of other countries who lost their citizens.
“[Yesterday] a group was established at foreign minister level (the International Coordination and Response Group for victims of Flight PS752) together with these countries. I will ensure that the group quickly establishes contact in light of the statement from Iran. We also have the support of the EU in our demands for a full investigation and for Iran’s cooperation in this,” Löfven said in a statement on Jan. 11.
However, Bakeer told The Epoch Times that the Iranian regime will most likely not accept the calls for an international investigation.
“Of course, they have every single right to call for international investigation given the fact that this regime can’t be trusted and has been in constant violation of many of the international laws, whether it comes to internal or external behavior and policies,” said Bakeer.
Calls for a transparent investigation were also made by Canada, Afghanistan, and the United Kingdom, as per the official statements by each nation.
From The Epoch Times
