Iran Finally Admits to Shooting Down Ukrainian Jet a Day After U.S. Confirms

The January 8th crash of a Ukrainian passenger jet over Iran has a breaking update. Iran, after initially and vehemently denying it, now finally admits to ‘accidentally’ shooting down the plane. The Minister of Foreign affairs tweeted out less than an hour ago about the situation. “A sad day”, the tweet starts out.

“Preliminary conclusions of internal investigation by Armed Forces: Human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster”. It appears that Javad Zarif is alluding to the possibility of trying to blame their error on the United States attacks on Iran, which Iran retaliated against the United States for shortly thereafter, but killing no Americans. The tweet concludes: “Our profound regrets, apologies, and condolences to our people, to the families of all victims, and to other affected nations.” See tweet below:

A sad day. Preliminary conclusions of internal investigation by Armed Forces:

Human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster

Our profound regrets, apologies and condolences to our people, to the families of all victims, and to other affected nations.
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— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 11, 2020

It seems as though this has humbled Iran further after an apparent backing off of claims they would be getting revenge on the United States for the killing of Qasem Soleimani. CNBC was one of the early outlets to break this news within the last hour. They reported in full:

Iran via state TV early Saturday morning announced its military’s role in the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet that killed all 176 people on board, saying the the shootdown was “unintentional” and blaming “human error.”

The Boeing 737-800 airliner crashed five minutes after takeoff from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport on Wednesday Jan. 8, just hours after Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Iraq’s Ain al-Asad air base. The attack on the base, which housed American forces, was in retaliation for the U.S. killing of Iranian commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani.

The Iranian statement comes after days of official denials from Tehran as the U.S. and Canadian governments, citing intelligence assessments, said the plane was most likely shot down by an Iranian missile. 

It is likely that we will hear a message from President Trump early tomorrow if not tonight.