Iran arrested an unspecified number of suspects on Jan. 14 in connection with the accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger jet, although experts said the arrests won’t solve the crisis, and that the Iranian regime isn’t trustworthy.
Ali Bakeer, an Ankara-based Middle East analyst, says the Iranian regime has arrested low-ranking officials involved in the downing of the plane; he thinks that the whole episode lacks transparency.
“I think arresting a few people with relatively low ranks will not solve the problem. To people, authorities that lie once, try hard to hide the evidence, and only confess under pressure and credible intel info, can always lie,” Bakeer told The Epoch Times.
The information about the arrests was released in a statement by Judiciary Commission spokesman Ghulam Hussein Ismaili, two days after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) acknowledged on Jan. 11 that it accidentally shot down the Ukrainian jetliner that crashed on Jan. 8, killing all 176 people aboard.
“The whole operation was a fiasco. It uncovered the devastating incompetence of the regime,” Bakeer said.
“The gap between the state and the mafia running the state which allowed such a tragic incident to occur in the first place is widening,” Bakeer said.
The plane was shot down hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on two military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq in retaliation for the killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.
“In the atmosphere of threats and intimidation by the aggressive American regime against the Iranian nation after the martyrdom of General Qasem Soleimani, and in order to defend ourselves against possible attacks by the American Army, the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran were on full alert, which unfortunately led to this terrible catastrophe taking the lives of dozens of innocent people because of human error and mistaken shooting,” Rouhani said.
The country has witnessed widespread protests since Jan. 11, after its military conceded the mistake.
Calls for International Investigation
While the Iranian government continued to push its anti-America narrative after the incident, many nations that lost their citizens demanded an international investigation. Experts, however, think that the Iranian regime will most likely not accept one.Those dead in the incident included 11 Ukrainians, 57 Canadians (including many Iranians with dual citizenship), 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans, and three Britons.
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven called the incident “terrible and horrifying” and said his country is in touch with the governments of other countries who lost their citizens.
However, Bakeer told The Epoch Times that the Iranian regime will most likely not accept the calls for an international investigation.
“Of course, they have every single right to call for international investigation given the fact that this regime can’t be trusted and has been in constant violation of many of the international laws, whether it comes to internal or external behavior and policies,” said Bakeer.