Exclusive; USA: The Islamic Republic Must Take Full Responsibility for the Attack on the Ukrainian Plane

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State on Friday, July 7, called on the Islamic Republic to take full responsibility for the "reprehensible and unjustifiable" attack on the Ukrainian plane. The spokesperson, regarding the complaint from four countries—Britain, Sweden, Ukraine, and Canada—against the Islamic Republic at the International Criminal Court, told the Persian section of Voice of America that the Islamic Republic "continues to refuse to accept responsibility for the downing of flight PS752 of Ukrainian International Airlines by two surface-to-air missiles from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps." This spokesperson described the act as "reprehensible and unjustifiable" and added: "We join the families of the victims and the governments of Canada, Sweden, Ukraine, and Britain and call on the [Iranian] government to take full responsibility for its actions." After about 42 months since the downing of the Ukrainian passenger plane in the sky over Tehran by IRGC missiles, the complaint against the Islamic Republic by the governments of Canada, Ukraine, Britain, and Sweden was officially sent to the International Court of Justice on Wednesday, July 5. The four countries had requested six months ago that the Islamic Republic of Iran agree to binding arbitration through the UN Convention designed to protect commercial aircraft from attack. This group announced that since the Islamic Republic did not agree to this request, the matter would be referred to the International Court of Justice as soon as possible. The request for binding arbitration followed years of unsuccessful negotiations with the Iranian government regarding compensation for the survivors and holding Tehran accountable. The IRGC shot down the Ukrainian passenger plane just minutes after it took off from Tehran Airport on January 8, 2020, killing all passengers, who were citizens of Iran, Canada, Ukraine, Sweden, Afghanistan, and Britain. With the referral of this case to the International Court of Justice, the association of families of the victims of flight PS752 issued a statement detailing the actions of the Islamic Republic regarding this incident, stating that "they killed 177 people, disrespected their bodies, stole their luggage, lied for three days, and ultimately in an incompetent court, sentenced an unnamed man to ten years in prison for negligence and disobedience to orders." In this statement, published on Wednesday, it was emphasized that the families of the victims do not forget and do not forgive the perpetrators and instigators of "this organized crime," and it was noted that following a "broad and lengthy campaign," the case of flight PS752 is now "open in both existing international courts in the world" and "we have independently filed a complaint in the International Criminal Court and are with the four affected countries in the International Court of Justice." Kaveh Shahrooz, a lawyer residing in Canada, told Voice of America that the Islamic Republic will be compelled to state the facts about the downing of the Ukrainian plane in court.