Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a statement to honor the memory of the passengers and crew of Ukrainian International Airlines flight PS752. According to his words, people’s lives were abruptly and senselessly taken one year ago by an unjustified Iranian shootdown.
The statement was published on the official website if the United States government.
According to Mr. Pompeo, even though Iranian authorities had conducted an investigation, all they could do was apologize, which did not help anyone. The Secretary of State stressed that the Iranian military continues to pretend that the shootdown was merely a mistake. Iran has avoided punishment for a deliberate crime.
“Iran’s own investigation revealed that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shot down the plane with two surface-to-air missiles. Yet, a year later, members of the IRGC have yet to be held accountable for taking the lives of 176 innocent civilian passengers and crew on board. Instead, throughout this prolonged investigation, the regime has continued to protect those in the IRGC who was responsible. We look forward to the day the Iranian authorities values the lives of the Iranian people with the same zeal with which they now cover for their officials’ misdeeds,” he stated.
The US Secretary of State expressed his condolences to those who continue to grieve their losses, wishing peace and strength to the families and loved ones of the victims.
The plane crash happened on January 8, 2020. The aircraft took off from Tehran airport but did not reach its destination. As it turned out, the Ukrainian airliner was shot down by the Iranian military with two Russian-made surface-to-air missiles. 176 were killed, including 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans, and three British nationals, according to Ukraine's Foreign Minister. Representatives of Iran insisted that this was a mistake. As per Iran, in addition to human error, the factor of failure in air defense systems played a role in the shootdown.