TEHRAN — Iranian lawmakers have issued a statement to extend their condolences to families of the victims of a Ukrainian plane, which was accidentally shot down by the IRGC Aerospace Force on Wednesday.

Ahmad Amirabadi read out the statement during an open session of the parliament on Sunday. The statement was backed by 186 members of the parliament, according to ISNA.

The MPs said that Iran’s revenge against the U.S. for the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, which was demanded by millions of proud Iranian nationals, astonished the world and showed the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ bravery, power, tactfulness.

The sweetness of this great victory for the Iranian nation ended as soon as the news of the downing of the Ukrainian plane came out, they said.

“We deeply sympathize with the families of the honorable martyrs and we share their grief,” the lawmakers remarked.

They also asked the “noble people of Iran” to attend the martyrs’ funeral.

In the statement, the MPs also thanked Soleimani’s comrades-in-arms in the IRGC for admitting their mistake with honesty.

“Our strong and overwhelming support for the IRGC is eternal,” they asserted.

All 176 crew members and passengers, 147 of whom were Iranians, died in the Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) crash which came a few minutes after take-off from Tehran to Kyiv on Wednesday.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces issued a statement on Saturday saying that the Ukrainian plane crash was caused by a “human error”.

“The Ukrainian passenger plane was hit unintentionally and due to humane error, which unfortunately led to the martyrdom of a number of our people and also a number of foreign nationals,” the statement read.

“Following threats made by the U.S. President [Donald Trump] and military commanders of attacking targets on the soil of the Islamic Republic of Iran in case of Iran’s retaliatory operation, and due to unprecedented increase in movements in the region’s airspace, Iranian armed forces were at the utmost level of readiness and alert,” it added.

It came in the aftermath of a Trump-ordered U.S. attack at Baghdad’s airport on January 3 that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. 

On January 4, Trump tweeted that if Iran attacks any American assets to avenge the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the U.S. has 52 targets across the Islamic Republic that “WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.”

“Let this serves as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans or American assets, we have.........targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD,” Trump said. “The USA wants no more threats!”

Nevertheless, Iran took revenge for the assassination in the early hours of Wednesday by conducting the Shahid (Martyr) Soleimani Operation against the Ain al-Assad base in Iraq with tens of surface-to-surface missiles.

MH/PA