Iran is said to have shot down a Ukrainian plane after being feared by F-35 fighter jets belonging to the United States (US). The statement was made by the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, who handled the incident on January 8, 2020. Ukraine's Boeing 737 crashed shortly after taking off at Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran, with 176 people in it.
The incident came hours after Iran attacked two US-based bases and their allies in Ain al-Assad and Irbil, Iraq. The attack was retaliation after the commander of the Quds Force, Major General Qasem Soleimani, was killed by US missiles. Lavrov said the Ukrainian International Airlines plane crashed after reports of the presence of F-35 fighter jets. "There are at least six fighter jets in the air in the Iranian border region (at the time)," Lavrov said, Sky News reported on Friday (1/17/2020). He explained, the information he had not checked the truth. "However, I always underline the anxiety that accompanies it," he explained. In an annual press conference in Moscow, Lavrov said that the crash of the Ukrainian plane was caused by human error. Therefore, he did not want to accuse anyone. But, he explained the importance of understanding connections from the point of view. Quoted Haaretz, he explained at the time, Tehran was in full alert after firing 22 missiles at Ain al-Assad and Irbil.
"News has emerged that they are preparing for possible responses from the US. However, they do not know what kind of answers," he said. Also read: Iran Ready to Negotiate with Anyone except the US, Iran, which had previously always denied shooting down Boeing 737 aircraft, finally admitted that they did not do it on purpose. They said they mistook Ukraine International Airlines for US aircraft because it was in a "military sensitive zone". In a video circulating online, two missiles were launched from Tehran which then crashed into the aircraft with flight number 752. The first missile is believed to have destroyed 752 transponders, with the second missile actually dropping it. Tehran later announced that it was carrying out alleged arrests of the perpetrators, including reportedly hunting video uploaders on social media. In his sermon on Friday prayer, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated that the "enemy" tried to obscure Soleimani's death through the Boeing 737 incident.