IRAN UPDATES 1/12/2020

Iran: protests and teargas as public anger grows over aircraft downing

Authorities break up second day of demonstrations that continued into the evening

JANUARY 12,2020
 

Michael Safi in Beirut and a reporter in Tehran @safimichael
Mon 13 Jan 2020 First published on Sun 12 Jan 2020

Iranians students protest on Saturday following a tribute for the victims of the Ukraine International Airlines aeroplane mistakenly shot down. Photograph: Rouzbeh Fouladi/Zuma/Rex

Iran was facing a renewed crisis on Sunday night with authorities using teargas to break up a second straight day of protests in Tehran and demonstrations spreading to other cities, as the nation’s leadership struggled to contain public anger over the Iranian military’s shooting down of a commercial airliner with 176 people on board.

Britain also found itself caught up in the furore as pro-regime protesters set alight a union jack flag in front of the UK embassy in Tehran after the British ambassador was briefly detained the night before and accused of coordinating protests, which he denies. Chanting “death to Britain”, up to 200 protesters including members of a pro-regime paramilitary organisation rallied outside the mission calling for it to be closed a day after Rob Macaire was arrested. He was later summoned by the Iranian foreign ministry.

Despite a heavy security presence on the streets of the capital, small protests flared up at several universities in Tehran throughout Sunday against both the shooting down of the Ukraine International Airlines jet last Wednesday and the subsequent days of official denials that an Iranian missile was responsible.

“They tell us the lie that it is America, but our enemy is right here,” a crowd shouted at Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University, and compared the Revolutionary Guards and their paramilitary allies to Islamic State. “You’re our Isis,” they said.

Footage posted online showed demonstrations taking place in other cities including Tabriz, Shiraz and Kermanshah.

As the sun went down, columns of security vans, including some fitted with cages, were seen streaming towards Tehran’s Azadi Square. Several hundred protesters also made their way there, marching through subway stations and along streets, singing revolutionary anthems and chanting, “death to the dictator”.

Later footage showed flood lights illuminating teargas in the air and protesters wearing cloths across their mouths as they continued to chant anti-regime slogans. “They fired teargas in the Azadi subway station,” said a man in one clip. “No one can get out, everybody is getting suffocated.”

Another video from Tehran showed a trail of blood on a sidewalk. “I saw seven people shot,” said a male voice holding the camera. “There is blood everywhere.” The veracity of the footage could not be independently confirmed.

The resurgent anti-government protests threaten to tip Iran’s regime into crisis just as it was riding a wave of nationalist sentiment after the killing of top general Qassem Suleimani by a US drone strike on 3 January.

Iran’s response – a carefully calibrated but heavily publicised ballistic missile attack on US forces in Iraq last Wednesday – was supposed to bring catharsis and demonstrate the regime’s power.

Instead, by leading to the shooting down of a passenger jet loaded with Iranian citizens, it has humiliated the military and exposed some of its top leaders as having lied to the country for days until the admission on Saturday morning that an Iranian missile was responsible for the crash.

Two state TV hosts resigned in protest over false reporting over the incident and Iranian media outlets joined the outcry, running front-page headlines that read, “Ashamed” and “Unbelievable”.

Iranian officials on Sunday defended the brief arrest of Macaire, the UK’s envoy to the country, saying he was “arrested as [an] unknown foreigner in an illegal gathering”.

“When police informed me a man’s [been] arrested who claims to be UK amb[assador], I said IMPOSSIBLE!,” wrote Seyed Abbas Araghchi, the deputy foreign minister, on Twitter. “Only after my phone conversation w[ith] him I identified, out of big surprise, that it’s him. 15 mins later he was free.”

Macaire tweeted that he had attended what was advertised as a vigil, left as it began to turn into a protest and was detained half an hour later. The Tasnim news agency, which is linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, reported on Sunday that Macaire had been using a shop near the protests as a place of “coordination”.

A few dozen members of the Basij paramilitary group gathered outside the UK embassy calling for its closure.

The British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, condemned the ambassador’s arrest as a “flagrant violation of international law” and said Iran was marching towards “pariah status”.

Donald Trump used the unrest to intensify pressure on the Islamic Republic and declare his support for the demonstrators. “DO NOT KILL YOUR PROTESTERS,” Trump said in a tweet direct at the Iranian government. “The World is watching. More importantly, the USA is watching.”

Suffocating US sanctions have sent Iran into deep recession, and a hike in the official price of fuel in November led to the largest protests in the 40-year history of the regime, to which the government responded by walling off Iran’s internet for several days and killing hundreds of demonstrators.

On Sunday, in a meeting between Iranian president Hassan Rouhani and the visiting emir of Qatar, both sides agreed de-escalation was the “only solution” to the regional crisis, the emirate’s ruler said.

Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said: “We agreed ... that the only solution to these crises is de-escalation from everyone and dialogue.”

The leaders of the UK, France and Germany on Sunday issued a joint statement calling on Iran to return to full compliance with a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and refrain from further violence.

“We urge Iran to reverse all measures inconsistent with the agreement and return to full compliance,” the leaders said in the statement issued by the office of the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

Iran had been complying with the deal until the US unilaterally pulled out in May 2018, imposing the sanctions that had incentivised Tehran to give up its nuclear program. Since then it has gradually walked away from the agreement in incremental steps that reduce the time it would take for the country to develop a nuclear weapon, although it maintains its nuclear research is peaceful.

“We call on Iran to refrain from further violent action or proliferation; and we remain ready to engage with Iran on this agenda in order to preserve the stability of the region,” the joint statement added.

The Revolutionary Guards commander, Hossein Salami, said on Sunday his forces were “more upset than anyone” over the shooting down of the plane, but other officials accused the US and its allies of exploiting the tragedy.

“Iran’s enemies want to take revenge on the Guards for a military mistake,” said Ali Shirazi, a representative of the Quds force, the Revolutionary Guards’ external arm.

The victims of the crash include 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans and three British nationals.

Iran crash protests: authorities struggle to contain anger over downed jet –

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Iranians gather to take part in an anti-government protest around Azadi square in Tehran on Sunday. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Protesters gather again in Iran, chant against authorities: Twitter posts

Reuters•January 12, 2020

DUBAI (Reuters) - Scores of protesters gathered for a second day in Iran on Sunday chanting slogans against the authorities following the military's admission it had shot down a passenger plane in error after days denying it was to blame, social media posts showed.

The posts on Twitter could not immediately be verified by Reuters. But state-affiliated media had reported protests on Saturday night shortly after the Iranian military said it had brought down the Ukrainian plane on Wednesday and apologised.

"They are lying that our enemy is America, our enemy is right here," protesters who had gathered in the street outside a university in Tehran chanted. They also gathered in other cities.

Iranian protesters call for Ayatollah to step down following plane strike admission

Tim O'Donnell, The Week•January 12, 2020


Iran's admission that it accidently shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet carrying 176 people this week has sparked unrest in the country.

Protesters — including many students — gathered in Iran on Saturday and Sunday, criticizing the government and demanding the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei step down. Iran initially denied involvement in the incident, but later said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, fearing retaliation from the U.S. for a strike Tuesday against an American military base in Iraq, mistook the plane for hostile aircraft and launched a missile that brought the plane down, killing everyone on board.

A candlelit vigil in Tehran for the victims Saturday evening morphed into a protest before police broke up the gathering with tear gas. Iranian security forces deployed in large numbers in Tehran on Sunday, patrolling the city on motorbikes and stationing at various landmarks in anticipation of more protests.

Iran has also faced criticism outside its borders. The United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab condemned Tehran for briefly detaining British Amabassador to Iran Rob Macaire after he attended the vigil (Macaire said he wasn't aware it would turn into a protest.) Raab said Iran was on its way toward "pariah status." Officials from Ukraine, Canada, and the United States also expressed dismay over how Iran handled the situation.

It’s heartbreaking that Iran gunned down those passengers – but the US is in no position to talk about restraint

The Independent 12 January 2020

Officials stand near the wreckage after an Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 which crashed shortly after take-off near Tehran, killing all 176 people on board, 8 January, 2020: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPAMore

There are many things wrong with Iran’s behaviour and leadership, but they have at least admitted to the latest tragedy of shooting down a civilian aircraft in “error”.

We should not forget that the US has also behaved questionably, with a current leadership that is at best erratic. And let’s not forget that the US was involved in a similar incident in 1988, when USS Vincennes accidentally shot down Iran Air Flight 655 believing it to be an incoming threat.

The actions of Donald Trump inflaming regional tensions and making the threat of a nuclear-capable Iran more likely are extremely worrying, especially in the event that future mistakes could be so much more serious.

'Our enemy is here': Iran protesters demand that leaders quit after plane downed

By Parisa Hafezi Reuters•January 12, 2020 

DUBAI (Reuters) - Protests erupted across Iran for a second day on Sunday, increasing pressure on the Islamic Republic's leadership after it admitted its military shot down a Ukrainian airliner by accident, despite days of denials that Iranian forces were to blame.

"They are lying that our enemy is America, our enemy is right here," one group of protesters chanted outside a university in Tehran, according to video posted on Twitter.

Other posts showed demonstrators outside a second university and a group of protesters marching to Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) Square, as well as protests in other cities.

Some state-affiliated media carried reports of the university protests, which followed demonstrations on Saturday sparked by Iran's admission that its military mistakenly shot down the plane on Wednesday, killing all 176 aboard, at a time when Tehran feared U.S. air strikes.

The Ukraine International Airlines plane was downed minutes after taking off from Tehran bound for Kiev on Wednesday. Many on board were Iranians with dual citizenship, while 57 were holders of Canadian passports.

Residents of the capital told Reuters that police were out in force on Sunday. Some protesters in Azadi Square first called on officers there to join them, then turned their anger on the authorities, chanting anti-government slogans including "Down with the dictator" - a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to social media posts and Iranian media reports.

The semi-official ILNA news agency said police moved to disperse the protesters, who it said numbered as many as 3,000. Videos posted online showed demonstrators running from police who used batons and teargas.

Reuters could not authenticate the videos.

Public anger boiled up following days of denials by the military that it was to blame for the crash, issued even as Canada and the United States said it appeared that Iranian air defences had shot down the airliner, probably in error.

"Apologise and resign," Iran's moderate Etemad daily wrote in a banner headline on Sunday, saying the "people's demand" was that those responsible for mishandling the crisis quit.

The latest unrest adds to mounting pressure on the Iranian authorities, who are struggling to keep the crippled economy afloat under stringent U.S. sanctions. [nL8N29G0CW]

Demonstrations against a hike in fuel prices turned political last year, sparking the bloodiest crackdown in the 40-year history of the Islamic Republic. About 1,500 people were killed during less than two weeks of unrest that started on Nov. 15, three Iranian Interior Ministry officials told Reuters, although international rights groups put the figure much lower and Iran called the report "fake news." [nL4N28X3B4]

After saying on Saturday that he was "inspired" by the courage of the demonstrators, U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday: "To the leaders of Iran - DO NOT KILL YOUR PROTESTERS. Thousands have already been killed or imprisoned by you, and the World is watching. More importantly, the USA is watching. Turn your internet back on and let reporters roam free!"

Later on Sunday, Trump said on Twitter he did not care if Iran agrees to negotiate with the United States, after a senior adviser suggested the Islamic Republic would have no choice but to agree to talks. [nL1N29H098]

'IRAN'S ENEMIES WANT REVENGE'

About 2,000 people packed a vigil for the air-crash victims in Toronto on Sunday, and a similar number attended a memorial in Edmonton, Alberta, where Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke. His voice breaking, Trudeau told the vigil he would "pursue justice and accountability" for the victims. "We will not rest until there are answers," he said. [nL1N29H035]

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) said it had obtained visas for two of its investigators to travel to Iran.

A second team of investigators who specialize in aircraft recorder download and analysis will be deployed once TSB confirms where and when that activity would take place, the agency said. [nL1N29H049]

The downing of the plane came as Iranian forces were on high alert for U.S. reprisals following tit-for-tat strikes.

A U.S. drone strike in Iraq on Jan. 3 killed prominent Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, responsible for building up Iran's network of proxy armies in Iraq and beyond. Tehran responded with missile strikes on U.S. targets in Iraq.

No U.S. soldiers were killed in the retaliatory attacks. But in the tense hours that followed, the Boeing 737-800 was cleared to take off from Tehran airport and brought down by a missile fired by mistake.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani apologised for what he said was a "disastrous mistake". But a top Revolutionary Guards commander added to public anger when he said he had told the authorities on the same day as the crash that an Iranian missile had brought down the plane.

The Guards' top commander, Hossein Salami, said that "we are more upset than anyone over the incident," state media reported. Another commander said Iran did not intend to conceal the cause.

But others said Iran's enemies, a term usually used to refer to Washington and its allies, were exploiting the incident.

"Iran's enemies want to take revenge on the Guards for a military mistake," said Ali Shirazi, Khamenei's representative to the Quds Force, the elite overseas Guards unit that Soleimani headed, state media reported.

Iranian officials sought to portray the plane disaster as a second blow to a nation mourning after Soleimani's death.

His funeral prompted huge public gatherings, which the authorities described as a show of national unity. But the displays of emotion have been swiftly overshadowed and protesters on Saturday tore up pictures of the slain general.

The killing of Soleimani dramatically escalated tensions between Tehran and Washington, following months of hostilities since Trump withdrew from a nuclear pact between Iran and world powers in 2018 and then toughened up sanctions.

Britain protested after its ambassador in Iran was briefly detained on Saturday. Iranian media said he was inciting protests. The envoy said he attended a vigil for plane victims.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab condemned the arrest and said Iran "can continue its march towards pariah status ... or take steps to de-escalate tensions" with diplomacy.

(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi and Dubai newsroom; Additional reporting by Rod Nickel in Edmonton, Alberta, Chris Helgren in Toronto, David Shepardson in Washington and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Writing by Edmund Blair, Pravin Char, Daniel Wallis and Jamie Freed; Editing by Philippa Fletcher, Frances Kerry and Peter Cooney)

Defying police, Iranians protest over plane shootdown

Videos posted online showed protesters shouting anti-government slogans and moving through subway stations and sidewalks. 


A woman attending a candlelight vigil to remember the victims of the Ukraine plane crash, talks to a policeman in Tehran, Iran, on Saturday. | Mona Hoobehfekr/ISNA via AP

By ASSOCIATED PRESS 01/12/2020

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian demonstrators defied a heavy police presence Sunday night to protest their country’s days of denials that it shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane carrying 176 people, the latest unrest to roil the capital amid soaring tensions with the United States.

Videos posted online showed protesters shouting anti-government slogans and moving through subway stations and sidewalks, many around Azadi, or Freedom, Square after an earlier call for people to demonstrate there. Other videos suggested similar protests were taking place in other Iranian cities.

Protesters often wore hoods and covered their faces, probably to avoid being recognized by surveillance cameras. Some online videos purported to show police firing tear gas sporadically, though there was no immediate wholesale crackdown on demonstrators.

Meanwhile, in an emotional speech before parliament, the head of the Revolutionary Guard apologized for the shootdown and insisted it was a tragic mistake.

“I swear to almighty God that I wished I was on that plane and had crashed with them and burned but had not witnessed this tragic incident,” said Gen. Hossein Salami. “I have never been this embarrassed in my entire life. Never.”

Iran’s state-run media, as well as semiofficial news agencies and publications, did not immediately report on the demonstrations. However, international rights groups already have called on Iran to allow people to protest peacefully as allowed by the country’s constitution.

“After successive national traumas in a short time period, people should be allowed to safely grieve and demand accountability,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran. “Iranians shouldn’t have to risk their lives to exercise their constitutional right to peaceful assembly.”


Riot police in black uniforms and helmets earlier massed in Vali-e Asr Square, at Tehran University and other landmarks. Revolutionary Guard members patrolled the city on motorbikes, and plainclothes security men were also out in force. People looked down as they walked briskly past police, hoping not to draw attention to themselves.

The plane crash early Wednesday killed everyone on board, mostly Iranians and Iranian-Canadians. After initially pointing to a technical failure and insisting the armed forces were not to blame, authorities on Saturday admitted accidentally shooting it down in the face of mounting evidence and accusations by Western leaders.

Iran downed the flight as it braced for possible American retaliation after firing ballistic missiles at two bases in Iraq housing U.S. forces. The missile attack, which caused no casualties, was a response to the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top general, in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad. But no retaliation came.

Coffins of Gen. Qassem Soleimani and others who were killed by a U.S. drone strike, are carried on a truck surrounded by mourners during a funeral procession in Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 6. | Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo

Iranians have expressed anger over the downing of the plane and the misleading explanations from senior officials in the wake of the tragedy. They are also mourning the dead, which included many young people who were studying abroad.

“Even talking about it makes my heart beat faster and makes me sad,” said Zahra Razeghi, a Tehran resident. “I feel ashamed when I think about their families.”

“The denial and covering up the truth over the past three days greatly added to the suffering and pain of the families, and me,” she added.

Another individual, who identified himself only as Saeed, said Iran’s largely state-run media had concealed the cause of the crash for “political reasons.”

“Later developments changed the game, and they had to tell the truth,” he said.

Earlier Sunday, hundreds of students gathered at Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University to mourn the victims and protest against authorities for concealing the cause of the crash, the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported.

Bahareh Arvin, a reformist member of the Tehran City Council, took to social media to say she was resigning in protest at the government’s lies and corruption. “With the current mechanism, there is no hope of reform,” she said.

Some Iranian artists, including famed director Masoud Kimiai, withdrew from an upcoming international film festival. Two state TV hosts resigned in protest over the false reporting about the cause of the plane crash.

President Donald Trump, who has expressed support for past waves of anti-government demonstrations in Iran, addressed the country’s leaders in a tweet, saying “DO NOT KILL YOUR PROTESTERS.” He later tweeted the same message again in Farsi.

“The World is watching. More importantly, the USA is watching,” he tweeted.

Iranians demonstrated in November after the government hiked gas prices, holding large protests across the nation. The government shut down internet access for days, making it difficult to gauge the scale of the protests and the subsequent crackdown. Amnesty International later said more than 300 people were killed.

A candlelight ceremony late Saturday in Tehran turned into a protest, with hundreds of people chanting against the country’s leaders — including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — and police dispersing them with tear gas. Protests were also held in the city of Isfahan and elsewhere.

Police briefly detained the British ambassador to Iran, Rob Macaire, who said he went to the vigil without knowing it would turn into a protest.

“Can confirm I wasn’t taking part in any demonstrations!” he tweeted. “Went to an event advertised as a vigil for victims of #PS752 tragedy. Normal to want to pay respects — some of victims were British. I left after 5 mins, when some started chanting.”

He said he was arrested 30 minutes after leaving the area.

Britain said its envoy was detained “without grounds or explanation” and in “flagrant violation of international law.”

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi later tweeted that Macaire was arrested “as an unknown foreigner in an illegal gathering.”

Araghchi said when police informed him that a man was arrested who claimed to be the British ambassador, he didn’t believe them. But he said that once he spoke to Macaire by phone, he realized it was him, and that the ambassador was freed 15 minutes later.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry later summoned the British ambassador over his ”illegal and inappropriate presence” at the protest, it said on its Telegram channel.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, a member of Iran’s parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, accused the ambassador of organizing protests and called for his expulsion. Dozens of hard-liners later gathered outside the British Embassy, chanting “Death to England.” They also called for the ambassador to be expelled and the embassy to be closed.

Iranian media, meanwhile, focused on the admission of responsibility for the crash, with several newspapers calling for those responsible to apologize and resign.

The hard-line daily Vatan-e Emrouz bore the front-page headline “A sky full of sadness,” while the Hamshahri daily went with “Shame,” and the IRAN daily said “Unforgivable.”

Mehdi Karroubi, an opposition activist under house arrest, lashed out at Khamenei himself, saying that as commander in chief he was “directly responsible.”

“If you were aware and you let military and security authorities deceive people, then there is no doubt you lack the attributes of constitutional leadership,” he said in a statement.

Criticism of the supreme leader is punishable by up to two years in prison.

Iran Protests Turn Violent in Ongoing Anger Over Downed Jet
Aoyon Ashraf and Arsalan Shahla Bloomberg  January 12, 2020

Iran Protests Turn Violent in Ongoing Anger Over Downed Jet

(Bloomberg) -- Iran witnessed a second night of protests, some violent, after the government admitted it had mistakenly downed a Ukrainian passenger jet.

Videos posted on social media, which couldn’t immediately be verified by Bloomberg News, showed clashes between protesters and riot police, trails of blood on a main street, chants in opposition to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and calls to rid the country of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Protesters in the videos said arrests had been made and tear gas fired at crowds.

Anger spread across the globe after Iran’s leaders admitted on Saturday that its military shot down the Ukrainian jet after mistaking it for a cruise missile, killing all 176 people on board.

The announcement was a dramatic reversal after the regime spent days accusing Western governments of “psychological warfare.” Iran’s government said Sunday it was forming a working group to probe the crash and compensate victims.

President Donald Trump, who a week ago threatened to bomb Iranian cultural sites, sent a series of tweets in Farsi over the weekend expressing support for protesters and warning Iran’s leaders not to intervene. “DO NOT KILL YOUR PROTESTERS,” Trump said. On Monday, he tweeted his enthusiasm at reports Iranian protesters refused to step on an American flag.

Protesters, many of them students, came out in force in Tehran’s landmark Azadi Square and at Shahid Beheshtri University, as well as in several regional cities. Earlier, videos showed motorcycle-mounted security forces in green camouflage and anti-riot body armor stationed on Tehran’s central Valiasr Square. There was also heavy police presence outside Tehran University.

On Saturday, large crowds of students demonstrated outside Amir Kabir University in downtown Tehran for a candlelight vigil, according to witnesses, before starting chants of “death to the dictator” and “resignation is not enough, a trial is needed!” Security forces intervened to disperse the demonstrators. The British Ambassador to Iran Rob Macaire was briefly detained after he attended the vigil, triggering an international incident.

Others used social media to vent their anger, contrasting the plane deaths with reports that the Iranian attack on the Iraqi bases on Wednesday when the plane was downed was specifically designed not to injure Americans.

The government’s admission that Iran’s security forces hold ultimate responsibility for the downing of the plane -- albeit at a time of conflict with their chief foe -- is a further blow for the country’s ruling clerics at a time when the economy has been devastated by U.S. sanctions. It appears to have undercut the sense of national unity that built after the Jan. 3 killing by the U.S. of General Qassem Soleimani, a hero to many Iranians for his work in Iraq and Syria helping to defeat Islamic State.

On Sunday, General Hossein Salami, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, apologized for the jet downing during a speech in parliament, CBS reported, citing Iranian state television.

“I swear to almighty God that I wished I were in that plane and had crashed with them and had burned, and had not witnessed this tragic incident,” Salami said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Saturday said he was “outraged” and “furious” by the shooting down of Ukrainian International Airlines Flight PS752. At least 57 Canadians were among the dead.

“What Iran has admitted to is very serious,” Trudeau said Saturday at a press briefing in Ottawa. He earlier declared the incident a national tragedy. “Shooting down a civilian aircraft is horrific. Iran must take full responsibility.“

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he wants a full admission of guilt by Iran for what authorities there called a “disastrous mistake.”

Ukraine and Iran will work jointly to decode the black boxes of the Boeing jet, Zelenskiy said. The Ukrainian government will make payments to the families of each of those who died in the crash, he said.

The three-year-old Boeing Co. 737-800 was shot down about two minutes after takeoff from Tehran. The tragedy occurred hours after Iran started launching rockets against Iraqi bases where U.S. forces are stationed, in retaliation for Soleimani’s killing. Nearly half the victims were Iranians, while many of the other passengers, including citizens of Canada, Sweden and the U.K., were of Iranian descent.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Iran was attempting to make itself the victim by blaming the jet incident, in part, on the escalation in tensions with Washington.

“Clearly, it was just a horrible mistake,” Esper said in an interview with CBS News. “To somehow allow Iran to play the victim card with the international community is just ridiculous.”

The commander of the IRGC’s aerospace force, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, blamed the tragedy on a communications failure. The operative who first mistakenly identified the plane as an incoming missile failed to get a second opinion due to a “disturbance” and had only 10 seconds to make a decision, he said. The army had previously said that “culprits” would be turned over to judicial authorities.

Iran’s supreme leader offered his condolences to the victims of the Ukrainian flight, while President Hassan Rouhani said the Islamic Republic “deeply regrets the disastrous mistake” and vowed compensation for the families of victims.

Meanwhile, the fate of the 2015 Vienna Nuclear Agreement between world powers and Iran hung in the balance. Germany, France and the U.K. on Sunday affirmed their commitment to the deal, which Trump pulled the U.S. out of in 2018.

Tehran this month announced it would stop abiding by limits on uranium enrichment, which had been agreed to in return for sanctions relief. The U.S. has instead pressed ahead with a series of measures against the Islamic Republic.

Additional U.S. sanctions announced last week, and a new executive order signed by Trump, “gave us additional capabilities to target both primary and secondary sanctions in different sectors, including the metals industry, construction, and travel,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday on Fox News.

(Updates with Iranian general comment from 12th paragraph.)

--With assistance from Alan Levin, Siraj Datoo, John Harney, Jon Morgan, Daryna Krasnolutska, Vanessa Dezem and Arsalan Shahla.

To contact the reporters on this story: Aoyon Ashraf in Toronto at aashraf7@bloomberg.net;Arsalan Shahla in Tehran at ashahla@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams, Ros Krasny

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Iran’s Days of Rage, a ‘Chernobyl’ Moment for Tehran

IranWire, The Daily Beast•January 11, 2020

Nazanin Tabatabaee/WANA via Reuters

These accounts also appear on IranWire, a partner publication of The Daily Beast, and will continue to be updated.

Saturday, January 11, the first day of the week in Iran’s calendar, has been a very long day for Iranians. I write these lines as the morning after has already dawned. The day started with the Iranian armed forces publicly accepting responsibility for shooting down the Ukrainian airliner, Flight 752, as covered by IranWire earlier today.

Trump Tweets Out Support for Iranian Protesters—in Farsi

The government’s shocking announcement has led to a mass outpouring of anger. Much of the anger was aired on social media before leading to mass protests in Tehran later in the day.

The shooting down of the passenger plane is already being billed as Iran’s Chernobyl moment, the 1986 disaster in the Soviet Ukraine which exposed all the incompetence, state deception and rot in that regime. The plane crash saga has done the same for the Islamic Republic and users on social media have been pointing to some of its possible implications.

There is a widespread sense that Iran’s government was only forced into admitting its responsibility under pressure from governments such as Canada, which lost more than 60 of its citizens in the crash, most of them dual citizens of Iranian background.

“What makes me cry more than anything is that, if many of the passengers didn’t hold other citizenships, this horrible truth wouldn’t have been exposed,”one user said.

Pointing to the red flags that were raised for the slain Revolutionary Guards general Qassem Soleimani, during the public demonstrations and funeral following his assassination in a US airstrike on January 3rd, and Iran’s promises of revenge, another user posted a picture of those who died on the flight and asked: “Who will take revenge for these beautiful people? Where can we raise red flags for them?”

Many tweets were more overt in their anger. One user used expletives and dared the government to do what it recently did to quell nationwide protests: “Cut the internet! Send the IRGC and Basij forces against the people!”

More prominent figures and commentators inside and outside Iran have also been adding their criticism to the rising chorus. From his detention in Tehran, Mehdi Karroubi, a leader of the 2009 opposition Green Movement, called on the commander-in-chief, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to resign, arguing that he lacks the basic qualifications to be the country’s leader..

Yaser Mirdamadi, an Islamic Studies scholar in London who happens to be Khamenei’s cousin, has offered a number of arguments suggesting that the Islamic Republic cares more for the lives of foreigners than its own citizens. For instance, the fact that the Revolutionary Guards missile attacks on US bases in Iraq last week carefully avoided causing any US casualties. Or the fact that the civilian flights of many countries in the region (Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain) seem to have been cancelled during the Middle East crisis whereas flights in Iranian airspace itself were allowed to continue.

ON THE STREETS

A vigil for the victims of Flight 752 had been called for 5:30 p.m. in front of Tehran’s Amir Kabir University, an institution with a history of dissent. According to an eyewitness account shared with IranWire from Tehran, people started gathering even before 5 p.m. and the vigil quickly led to mass protests.

The chants became radicalized and political as the protests went on.

“Incompetent authorities must resign!” was one of the early chants; in turn, it was quickly followed by a question from the crowd: “Who is their resignation good for? They should be tried.” Chants of “Resignation is not enough, trials should be held” were the result.

But where should the buck stop? Many beyond Karroubi have dared to go all the way to the top, to the country’s Supreme leader.

“All these years of crimes! Down with this Supreme Leader!” was a slogan that rang out late in the protest. “We didn’t lose lives to praise the murderer leader,” was another.

Plainclothes officers were seen around the protests and they were met with massive jeers and expletives from the gathered people.

With hundreds killed during last year’s Iran-wide November protests, Iranians are aware of the high stakes involved in any fresh demonstrations. IranWire’s eyewitness report some of the conversations on the streets today.

“This time, even if they kill us all, we won’t go home, they must resign,” one protester said.

A young man accompanied by his concerned mother bitterly likened himself to Pouya Bakhtiari, the 27-year-old man who had gone to the protests with his mother and was shot dead by security forces, becoming a symbol for demonstrators around the country.

Unlike those protests, which were led by people suffering economic hardship, many of them in smaller cities, this time the middle classes have ignited the protests. Many speak of the need for unity between the working and middle classes to lead a viable and representative opposition movement.

Flight 752 has instantly become a national tragedy–and a source of national shame–that has caused even Iranian celebrities to join the vigil and to voice their anger through social media. The banned director Jafar Panahi, widely recognized as one of Iran’s most important and internationally renowned filmmakers, attended the vigil today along with actresses such as Hedye Tehrani, Parastoo Salehi and Hanie Tavasolli.

As the crowd of the Islamic Republic’s victims grows larger and larger, the rank of those standing against it also grows.

LEADERS WITHOUT A CONSCIENCE

Report from an Iranian citizen journalist:

The crowd grew bigger minute by minute and the slogans got more and more radical. Under Hafez Bridge near Amir Kabir University of Technology, people gathered, calling for an end to murder and incompetence and accusing the country’s leaders of being “bi sharafs” — people with no conscience, morals or values.

The rally had been planned for 5:30 p.m., but people began gathering before 5:00 p.m.

Security and plainclothes agents were out in force from the outset, but when peoples’ chants became angrier, harsher and more critical, special forces pushed through the crowds on motorcycles. The crowd shouted at them: ”Shame on you!” Security forces became more heavy-handed as the chants—including “We won’t praise the murderous leader!” and “People didn’t die so we could live like this”—continued. Police tried to stop people from filming the rally so they could share it online. One demonstrator said to a girl filming, "Chant but don't film; filming makes them wild."

One university student told me the mood started off very tense all around the university area in the morning, and that the tension mounted throughout the day. And while agents tried to prevent people from recording events, they took footage of events themselves. "The university security forces are filming the students to crack down on them later in the rallies," he said. "They had done this before; they followed up on students and even university professors in the rallies based on the videos they had taken."

Then the protester shouted to the crowd, "Death to the dictator,” before turning back to me and saying, "Why should I try not to be expelled? Getting excellent grades, passing everything, getting a scholarship and going abroad and then coming back, only one day and get on a plane...” He stopped, tears welling up in his eyes.

As night fell, security forces closed off access to the university, but it made no difference—the protests continued. "Don't call us seditionists — you’re the seditionists!” people called out, referring to the regime’s term for people who take part in anti-government protests or movements. One person called out: "Please don't go home tonight; we have to stay out in the street. If we go home, just like in the November protests, they will kill us."

Russia to Iran: Don’t Admit Guilt—Blame the U.S. Instead

Amnesty International reported that more than 300 people were killed and thousands more were injured during the crackdown in November, when security forces used violence to stop nationwide protests, which began as a response to a hike in gas prices and soon turned into an outcry against the government. Reuters quoted an anonymous source as saying that the death toll for November's death was actually 1,500.

During Saturday's protests, one demonstrator told me, repeating a common theme in the crowd: "This time we will all get killed. We won't go home. They have to resign. They have to resign." He added: “They have mocked the world during recent days. They lied about the reason for the plane crash being a technical flaw. If citizens of other countries were not on the plane, they would have covered up the whole story."

Away from the university, on Somaya Street, it was less crowded. I came across a woman crying uncontrollably, her young son beside her. "Don't go far, stay here." The boy nodded his head and stayed by her side. "This morning he told me there were protests at the university. I told him not to go in the crowds. He said if something happened to him, it will happen. Remember, Pouya's mother was next to him when it happened to him” — a reference to Pouya Bakhtiari, who was shot dead during November protests in Karaj.

His mother also took part in the November protests and told IranWire: "I was chanting," she said. "I suddenly saw a flood of people coming down the boulevard where I was standing, screaming, ‘We will kill those who killed my brother.' They were carrying Pouya's body. Pouya's face was covered in blood, and this is the last image I have of him in my mind. We immediately took him to Karaj Ghaem Hospital, where we realized it was too late.”

On that day in November, security forces used tear gas to disperse the crowds, and even against people trying to take refuge in the surrounding streets. So far there have been no reports of police using such force against crowds in the January 11 protests, but people’s stories of the demonstrations will undoubtedly emerge in the coming hours and days.