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| Iran plane crash: Ukraine's president calls on US and allies to share evidence – live | Iran plane crash: Ukraine's president calls on US and allies to share evidence – live |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Volodymyr Zelenskiy to discuss investigation with US secretary of state Mike Pompeo | Volodymyr Zelenskiy to discuss investigation with US secretary of state Mike Pompeo |
| France has said this morning that it is ready to join the investigating into the crash of a Ukrainian airliner. | |
| “It is important that as much clarity as possible is made and as quickly as possible,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was quoted by Reuters as saying. | |
| Last year, the French agency BEA helped analyse data from the flight recorder of a crashed Boeing plane in Ethiopia. | |
| In a Facebook post this morning the Ukrainian president says he is not ruling out the possibility that the plane which crashed earlier this week in Iran had been hit a by a missile. | |
| “The missile theory is not ruled out, but it has not been confirmed yet,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in the post. | |
| Zelenskiy reiterated his call for “all international partners” the U.S., Britain and Canada in particular to share data and evidence relevant to the crash. | |
| The head of Iran’s investigation team into the plane crash has told state television that Tehran will use expert help from Russia, Ukraine, France and Canada if we cannot recover data from the plane’s recorders. | |
| Hassan Rezaeifar said today that recovering the data could take more than one month and the entire investigation into the crash could take more than one year. | |
| He also said the flight had been delayed by about an hour because the pilot decided to unload part of the luggage as the flight was overweight. | |
| It’s believed the US system that detected the missile launches that brought down the Ukrainian passenger jet is the Space Based Infrared System, a network of around ten satellites operated by the US Air Force’s Space Command first launched in 2011. | |
| The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont adds that the system was designed specifically to detect launches of missiles, including missile tests by countries like North Korea, and relies on detecting the infrared end of the spectrum. | |
| Specifically the system is designed to be able to detect strategic and short range ballistic missile launches, determine their flight trajectory, and provide a location for where the missile will hit, pretty much what the US and its allies are claiming. | |
| Oleksandr Danylyuk, the former head of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the US side should have enough intelligence in the region to be back up assertions that the flight was shot down. | |
| He added: “It looked very suspicious early. It was a relatively new plane with very experienced crew. What I was very suspicious about was that quite quickly from the Iranian side there was a position that it was not a terrorist attack or shooting down but a technical failure.” | |
| The investigative journalism website Bellingcat has geolocated the location of one of a number of videos that have emerged showing the moment of a possible missile strike on the plane. | |
| The video - which posted onto a public Telegram channel - has been geolocated to a residential area in Parand (coordinates 35.489414, 50.906917), a suburb to the west of Imam Khomeini International Airport, according to the website. | |
| Bellingcat notes that it is unclear why the person holding the camera was filming at the time, but it was possible that there were two missiles. | |
| A number of media outlets report that Iran had turned on its missile defence system to protect itself after it fired 22 missiles at American bases in Iraq in retaliation for the US killing last week in Iraq of the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani. | |
| The system, however, mistook Flight 752 for a threat and shot it down, Newsweek reports, quoting a senior US intelligence official. | |
| US media outlets have also quoted officials saying their satellites had identified the signature of an Iranian anti-aircraft battery being activated shortly before the aircraft went down a few minutes after taking off at 6.13am on Wednesday morning. | |
| The US officials said they had identified infrared signals from two suspected missiles, followed shortly afterwards by an infrared blip from the burning aircraft. | |
| Public suspicions that the Boeing 737-800 may have accidentally been shot down had grown throughout Thursday based on images circulating on social media showing what appeared to be missile debris that was purportedly photographed near the crash site. | |
| Iranian officials have rejected the western intelligence assessments. | Iranian officials have rejected the western intelligence assessments. |
| “Scientifically, it is impossible that a missile hit the Ukrainian plane, and such rumours are illogical,” said Ali Abedzadeh, the head of Iran’s of Civil Aviation Organisation. | “Scientifically, it is impossible that a missile hit the Ukrainian plane, and such rumours are illogical,” said Ali Abedzadeh, the head of Iran’s of Civil Aviation Organisation. |
| A spokesman for the Iranian government, Ali Rabiei, went on in a statement today to blame what he described as a “US psychological operation.” | A spokesman for the Iranian government, Ali Rabiei, went on in a statement today to blame what he described as a “US psychological operation.” |
| Iran’s Press TV quotes him as saying: | Iran’s Press TV quotes him as saying: |
| “It is unfortunate that the psychological operation of the US government, and those supporting it knowingly and unknowingly, are adding insult to the injury of the bereaved families and victimising them for certain goals by propagating such fallacies,” the senior Iranian official pointed out. | “It is unfortunate that the psychological operation of the US government, and those supporting it knowingly and unknowingly, are adding insult to the injury of the bereaved families and victimising them for certain goals by propagating such fallacies,” the senior Iranian official pointed out. |
| Meanwhile, a new video has emerged which appears to show the moment a Ukrainian passenger jet was shot down in Iran. | Meanwhile, a new video has emerged which appears to show the moment a Ukrainian passenger jet was shot down in Iran. |
| Originally obtained by the New York Times, the phone footage shows a tiny spec suddenly exploding. | Originally obtained by the New York Times, the phone footage shows a tiny spec suddenly exploding. |
| The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has vowed to find answers over crash that killed 176 people, including 63 Canadians, and has also cited intelligence reports casting the incident in a new light. | The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has vowed to find answers over crash that killed 176 people, including 63 Canadians, and has also cited intelligence reports casting the incident in a new light. |
| “We have intelligence, including from our allies and own intelligence that the plane was shot down by Iranian surface-to-air missiles,” Trudeau said. | “We have intelligence, including from our allies and own intelligence that the plane was shot down by Iranian surface-to-air missiles,” Trudeau said. |
| “Canadians want answers. That means transparency, accountability and justice.” | “Canadians want answers. That means transparency, accountability and justice.” |
| Western agencies are understood to have picked up signals of the missile launches followed by the traces of an explosion. | Western agencies are understood to have picked up signals of the missile launches followed by the traces of an explosion. |
| A British source told the Guardian: “The assessment is that it looks like it is a tragic accident.” | A British source told the Guardian: “The assessment is that it looks like it is a tragic accident.” |
| In a statement on Thursday night, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “There is now a body of information that the flight was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile. This may well have been unintentional. We are working closely with Canada and our international partners and there now needs to be a full, transparent investigation.” | In a statement on Thursday night, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “There is now a body of information that the flight was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile. This may well have been unintentional. We are working closely with Canada and our international partners and there now needs to be a full, transparent investigation.” |
| Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s live blog coverage of the terrible loss of life after a Ukrainian passenger aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran - and the new development in the form of claims by western security officials that it was accidentally shot down by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile. | Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s live blog coverage of the terrible loss of life after a Ukrainian passenger aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran - and the new development in the form of claims by western security officials that it was accidentally shot down by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile. |
| Intelligence have sources told the Guardian their assessments suggest two surface-to-air missiles had targeted the Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 that went down in Iran on Wednesday morning, killing all 176 people onboard. | Intelligence have sources told the Guardian their assessments suggest two surface-to-air missiles had targeted the Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 that went down in Iran on Wednesday morning, killing all 176 people onboard. |
| Iran was inviting experts from Boeing, the jetliner’s manufacturer, to join the investigation into the crash, the Iranian official news agency IRNA said on Friday, while the US National Transportation Safety Board said it had received “formal notification” of the crash from Iran and had designated a representative to the crash inquiry. | Iran was inviting experts from Boeing, the jetliner’s manufacturer, to join the investigation into the crash, the Iranian official news agency IRNA said on Friday, while the US National Transportation Safety Board said it had received “formal notification” of the crash from Iran and had designated a representative to the crash inquiry. |
| On Friday morning the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on “international partners” to share any information they had on the crash. | On Friday morning the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on “international partners” to share any information they had on the crash. |
| Zelenskiy also said he would discuss the investigation with US secretary of state Mike Pompeo later on Friday. | |
| “The version about a missile hitting a plane is not ruled out, but it has not been confirmed yet,” Zelenskiy said on Facebook. “Given the recent statements by the leaders of the states in the media, we call on all international partners - notably the governments of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom - to submit data and evidence concerning the disaster to the commission which investigates the causes.” | “The version about a missile hitting a plane is not ruled out, but it has not been confirmed yet,” Zelenskiy said on Facebook. “Given the recent statements by the leaders of the states in the media, we call on all international partners - notably the governments of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom - to submit data and evidence concerning the disaster to the commission which investigates the causes.” |
| You can reach here here on Twitter if you want to flag up news developments on this. | You can reach here here on Twitter if you want to flag up news developments on this. |