A new video has sent shockwaves across the Middle East which shot on Thursday aboard a Mahan Airways flight 1152 from Tehran to Beirut, showing passengers panicking as oxygen masks fell from the cabin ceiling. It is believed that a US F-15 fighter jet buzzed the Iranian passenger jet over Syrian airspace, causing the plane a plunge that left several injured.
Iran announced it will be filing a complaint to the UN Security Council, and the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization has announced its protest to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) over shocking interception by US military jets of an Iranian civil plane carrying Lebanese and other passengers in Syrian airspace.
The motivation of such a risky move has come into question by some who are comparing to similar past provocations by Israel where in 2018 the IDF had intentionally shadowed a Russian plane in order to trigger Syrian missile defenses and get Syria to shoot down a Russian aircraft over Latakia, or when Israel’s IDF used Syrian passenger airliner as cover to attack Damascus on Christmas Day in 2018.
Either Israeli or US regime fighter jets threatened an Iranian passenger plane over Syrian airspace.
In Iran it is widely believed that the objective was to cause Syrian air defences to mistakenly shoot down the plane or to force the pilot to make a catastrophic mistake. https://t.co/Wql69Oz2Ze
— Seyed Mohammad Marandi (@s_m_marandi) July 23, 2020
Two #American/#Israeli fighter jets have dangerously approached an #Iranian passenger plane over Syrian airspace endangering lives of civilians aboard. It is an unacceptable violation of law, sovereignty of Syria and humanity.@UN Security Council should take harshest measures. pic.twitter.com/4WOiygxgAq
— Hamid Reza (@hamid3663) July 23, 2020
Once again, Washington’s precarious occupation and aggression in eastern Syria seems is backfiring…
RT International reports….
Iran’s top diplomat pulled no punches while slamming the US for scrambling fighter jets to challenge an Iranian airliner flying over Syria. The audacious move served to “compound lawlessness,” he said.
Mohammad Javad Zarif had some bold words for Washington, which said earlier in the day that the F-15 jet was sent in to carry out “a visual inspection” of the Mahan Air Airbus A310. It also said the flyby was to ensure the Iranian jet posed no danger to the American military base At Tanf, set up in the southeastern part of Syria without Damascus’ consent.
There were conflicting reports as to how many US jets took part in the encounter. While the US Central Command says one F-15 had approached the Mahan Air plane, some Iranian media insist that two warplanes were maneuvering in close proximity to the passenger airliner.
“The US illegally occupies territory of another State and then harasses a scheduled civil airliner – endangering innocent civilian passengers – ostensibly to protect its occupation forces,” Zarif commented on Twitter, before striking a harsher tone.
Audacity to compound lawlessness upon lawlessness. These outlaws must be stopped before disaster.
Other Iranian officials have also used similar language when giving their takes on the incident that saw the packed A310 rapidly changing altitude.
Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami bluntly accused the US of committing a “terrorist act” by “attacking a passenger plane.” Tehran’s civil aviation authority reached out to the UN-run International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to investigate the aerial encounter.
Several passengers received minor injuries in the incident, which was filmed from inside the plane. By Thursday evening the aircraft had returned safely to Tehran.
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