Iran dismisses Ukrainian plane crash report as 'heavily politicised'

Tehran, June 26 Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohsen Baharvand has dismissed an official Canadian report on the Ukrainian airplane crash near Tehran in January 2020 as "heavily politicised".

"Legally, the Canadian authorities do not have any authority to issue unilateral and arbitrary reports or comments regarding the reports on air accidents within the jurisdiction of another country," Xinhua news agency quoted Baharvand as saying on Friday.

On Thursday, the Ottawa government published a report conducted by a Canadian forensic team about the Ukrainian Boeing 737-800 that crashed on January 8, 2020 after it was hit by two missiles launched by Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, killing all 176 people on board.

The Canadian team wrote in its account that it "found no evidence that Iranian officials ordered the shootdown or that it was premeditated".

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, however, slammed the Iranian civilian and military authorities in the report, blaming the incident on "their recklessness, incompetence, and wanton disregard for human life".

In response, Baharvand described such criticism included in the Canadian report as "technically baseless and therefore unacceptable".

Iran sent the draft of its report to the countries involved before its publication and within the legal deadline and those countries sent their comments on the report to Tehran, he noted.

The technical appreciations officially submitted by Canada did not include "general and incomprehensible" remarks made public on Thursday, he added.

"According to the Chicago Convention, if (the Canad) had new information, they should offer it to the Iranian investigation team instead of creating useless media and political controversies," Baharvand noted.

The Deputy Minister also dismissed a threat by Trudeau to take the downing of the Ukrainian airplane to the International Court of Justice.

"Iran has fulfilled its obligations in accordance with international law, and will continue to pursue and implement its commitments according to its own timeframes," Baharvand said.

In Iran's official report on the crash, its Civil Aviation Organization blamed the incident on a misaligned radar and an error by an air defense operator.

On April 6, an Iranian military prosecutor announced the indictment of 10 officials for the downing of the aircraft.