Watching a Large International bring your live news update from our studio here in moscow welcome to the program we start with breaking news this hour as irans foreign minister has just written on the internet that its military unintentionally shot down the ukrainian plane on wednesday due to human error a passenger jet went down near tehran on wednesday killing all 176 people on board were joined live now in the studio for by our correspondent. Of course youve been following this story throughout these past few days as everything has been developing this goes against what iran had been saying from the beginning doesnt it yeah well the news that the government accidentally shot down the plane began earlier today when iranian government media began making these reports now it wasnt long after that like you said irans foreign minister post on twitter that. This was an accidental shoot down and he also attributed to the cause of it to us adventurism in the region. Assad day preliminary conclusions of internal investigation by armed forces human error at time of crisis caused by us adventurism lead to disaster ill perform regrets apologies and condolences to our people to the families of all victims until the affected nations we also heard from irans president who said that the missiles regrettably were shot at the plane due to human error and he also said an investigation was going under way to look into what caused this the armed forces internal investigation has concluded that regrettably missiles fired duty human error caused the horrific crash of the ukrainian plane and the death of 176 innocent people investigations continue to identify and prosecute this great tragedy and unforgivable mistake. Now the plane was shot down just several hours after several iranian air strikes missile strikes against u. S. Bases in iraq that was in harsh retaliate that was the harsh retaliation that iran had promised from in response to an earlier u. S. Airstrike that killed the could commander qassam solo monny unfortunately history shows that in times of high Political Tension theres a lot of confusion and im sure that that was widespread in iran you know wondering if the u. S. Would retaliate against them once they had sent these missile strikes to u. S. Bases in iraq and history has a record of it really in ukraine in 2001 for example shot down the 2 you won 54 and the year and the reigning air bus was also shot down in 1908 by by the u. S. So theres obviously a track record of in times of high Political Tension this stuff can happen were also getting reports and that the iranian president has taken measures to pay compensation for the victims of the flight and has also ordered to eliminate flaws in the National Air Defense system after the downing of this passenger plane are thank you for staying across this for some shall be talking to you again later today. A live analysis to go to author and commentator doctors who bear great now why do you think iran and initially denied shooting down the plane and now we have this announcement. But 1st of all this is many many unfortunate news that has come out and iran has accepted it and this is an indication of the difficult times in the dangerous times that we all are living in at the moment well as far as your question is concerned i think any surely they were denying it because this was a huge huge responsibility and there was an effort an intentional effort to cover it up there was also some indication that the black box had been found but it had been partially damaged but it was actually north when there were technical investigations and we are doing it in an age of satellites and all of the International Investigation agencies are focusing on that it was not possible for iran to cover it any further so that was a good thing that they had accepted but there again had they have blamed on the on the u. S. Pressure the political pressure and the security pressure that they were forcing on the iranians and we can also understand this is a highly highly pressure situation there was a Pressure Cooker situation with the iranian authorities there were the political pressure the social pressure there was that they were having some problems with their internal audiences to give it to give back to the retaliation to the americans but then the interNational Air Defense system should be robust should be practically arranged to avoid such capabilities of the foreign minister has blamed us adventurism for the human error that took place and led to the downing of the jet i justify well is that claim do you think. Well the old we can all understand that there are human beings who are controlling these catastrophic machines the missiles and the guns that were there available so if there was an apprehension that the u. S. Was going to do some kind of an intervention on adventurism into the iranian soil so there were 2 they were having some nervous times on the triggers so this can be plausible things but on the other hand the iranians should take it to full responsibility of the doubt and ifs and buts that this was our problem and they have also i think since the news are just coming in they have i think come in the persons who are responsible for that it would be prosecuted again but there has to be a lot of International Community as well were living in this in this whole environment where hundreds of planes flying from this site or that site east and south north and sort of south as if in this kind of a Pressure Cooker like situation any human error can lead to multiple lives and casualties so we have to be very very careful about that. What kind of response we think will have from the west now that iran has come out and admitted that this did happen this accent to come down from a human error. Well there can be said is complications and implications for it on there can be fodder for the problem for iran in terms of embargo they can get an embargo they can get financial embargo they could have the find another alibi to pressurize the the already teaching economy in the social structure of iran there can be pressure immediate pressure to pay the compensation to be next to the families of the other people who have died and there can be another tool in the hands of the us to have some kind of embargo maybe an embargo maybe a technical embargo maybe a support embargo maybe some restrictions on the fly zones that are there are available on the iranian airspace. Now there were of course over 80 iranians on the plane that went down what kind of reaction do you think that they will be seeing in the country itself from the citizens of iran. Well i think that could be a normal institute or not or not normal situation with the iranian authorities that would be very very difficult to handle them because they have to be responsible for their own people and as for the International Passengers were on that plane they would have to be unsuitable to the ukrainian authorities as well and it does in very difficult situation for support i think they would like to offer the condolences and sympathies and i think the Iranian Foreign ministry and their operations should themselves down in the stands that should they should sympathize with the passengers and their families they should feel sorry about daryn start of just putting a blame. Finger towards the u. S. And the west and then they should offer their all kind of support and then of course the compensation that is there but the families who have lost their dear and near ones started an irreparable loss but technically speaking they can do much more things for the company and for the families for the people who have suffered from that and there can be some serious questions asked from the from the domestic audiences about the Technical Expertise of the armed forces who are controlling this wall of fear around president of course rightly called this mistake unforgettable and as you mentioned he promised to prosecute anybody who was involved in the tragedy what kind of follow up do you see coming from that investigation into those who were responsible. I think there are a lot of National Laws and interNational Laws that are available on that and they will be following that international National Laws but as far as the armed forces are concerned this can be also an indication the pressure of the attacks on the iranian side is that the Iranian Forces are foreseen at the moment but there can be a cup down there can be punishment theyre going to be punished or punishments and they can also be a complete overhaul or maybe a closure of some time. Until i listed realized that you know new space is completely safe for the past and especially the commercial passengers the civilian passengers there can be a closure for that not to run said that pentagon aircraft actually were flying in the vicinity of the airport where the plane crashed if that turns out to be true that sort of gives some justification to what happened or is this something that is just as the president called on forgivable. This is unforgivable him and if. Any other plane was flying but i think this alibi as that is not acceptable because of this incident happened in tehran vicinity then which is very far from the iranian it occupied or if there was a plane in the vicinity of that area i mean that has crossed the docking border and flew hundreds of miles into that army and into the territory of tehran so i think this is just an alibi they are trying to find there should be no ifs and buts that i have already stated and they should accept this fully and apologize and sympathize and compassionate with the families of the wealthy of the persons who have lost their lives and they should go all out to clean their to clean their affairs and on the other hand there has to be some sanity prevailing from the western side from the us the pressure should be eased down as. The us president was stating that we are offering once again an olive branch to the iranians that the nonmilitary should come back there should be peace in the region once again but that also should not be qualifier that so many restrictions that the us president was offering so there has to be some kind of cooperation towards iran to come back from this Pressure Cooker election commissions were normal life so that they can ease down their nerves and see the things as they are author and commentator doctors are very great thank you for your time and your comments. And heres a reminder of what witnesses were saying after the plane went down. No more than toil on the right side of the airplane and one end completely on final i think the pilot made a great if not to hold president ial hands its the plane crash landed in lonnie park and destroyed the fence for a foot and then it took off again and exploded and was completely incinerated off when you know the keith was watching the news of iranians hitting us bases with missiles on t. V. After 10 minutes i heard a massive explosion and all the houses still to shake it was flying everywhere at 1st i thought the american substructure with missiles and i went into the basement to take cover all through while i went out and sort of the plane had crashed over their body parts were lying around. In some support for my oldest son is the steward daughter called me from the us she told me that the ukrainian aircraft crashed just wear a go through i said to run a national the video of the plane crash. The u. S. Secretary of state has defended washingtons decision to assassinate irans top general again News Conference struggle to explain the alleged threat posed by gen samani and was grilled by journalists killed often has more. Things got quite easy at the press conference where we saw mike pompei o the u. S. Secretary of state speaking alongside steve minutia in the secretary of treasury and this comes just a week after the killing of irans top general qassam solomonic and as the press asked questions got particularly tense mike pompei o seemed a little bit uncomfortable trying to answer the questions of journalists who just dont seem to buy his claim that the killing of solomonic was necessary to protect american lives lets take a listen to some of what went on if you have specific information about the internet and didnt have anything to do with our embassy. We had specific emanation information on an imminent threat and those threats trim included attacks on u. S. Embassies what is your definition of the internet. This was going to happen and american lives were at risk if the Intelligence Community is not flawless we we get it wrong in this case the Intelligence Community got it fundamentally right there was an imminent attack that was active plotting is that right now gone with sort of money gone threats are never going now it wasnt just the journalists who dont exactly buy pompei as claims but american lawmakers also have their doubts we just saw in the u. S. House of representatives the lower house of the u. S. Legislative branch a resolution was passed attempting to restore it to the activities of the trumpet ministration and trying to prevent them from further escalating tensions with the Islamic Republic of iran however these doubts about whether it was the right thing in order to kill qassam solomonic go well beyond legislators and journalists they actually go to the us public itself we have new poll results that have been conducted and it shows that basically 2 thirds of the u. S. Public believes at this point that the country is less safe because of trumps decision to kill the top iranian general furthermore 69 percent. Cent of the u. S. Public believes that iran is more likely to attack the usa as a result of trumps decisions 52 percent describe trump killings qassam solomonic as reckless so a pretty solid opposition to trumps killing of qassam solomonic among American People themselves while at the press conference mike peo and steve minutia laid out basically what these new sanctions will include the new sanctions are targeting high level officials in iran basically preventing any business transactions with them but when explaining these new sanctions a mike bomb peo use some rather interesting language to lay out what he argued was the ultimate end game of the United States when it comes to iran the president said we dont want war we want iran to be hit with a Noble Mission the reason that the secretary treasurer of this morning is to continue this campaign our strategic effort to get to run to behave in a way that doesnt continue their 40 year long effort to terrorize the world if you hear those words he refers to saying that he wants iran to be a quote normal country so essentially it seems the United States is ask a lady threats and carrying out more sanctions with the goal of forcing the Islamic Republic to conduct itself in a manner that the United States considers to be normal not exactly clear what that means but until that happens there will be further activities and sanctions and threats and what not now many are hoping that the Current Situation is in a state of deescalation but at the same time people worry about what could happen next you know the sanctions still remain iran still has the capabilities we saw the recent strikes that took place so a lot of nervousness in the Global Community at the moment you know i think air is still on sanctions at this point but i will get around to that again despite the fact that we dodged a bullet about going to war with iran our last few days were still in the same set piece positions where we were before and. All these guys around the president can think of but how do we turn the screws more more backs mum pressure more and more and this is the next thing i can do a lot of this list remember is aimed at the europeans i think a lot of this is toward pressuring the europeans to side with the americans in this full Pressure Campaign meanwhile there is growing concern among iraqis that the country is becoming a ballad ground between the u. S. And iran thousands of people took to the streets of baghdad on friday calling for an end to foreign interference. Demonstrators waving iraqi flags chanted no to america no to brant meanwhile iraqs caretaker Prime Minister has demanded that the u. S. Make preparations for a troop pullout and washington has made it clear thats not going to happen or rather stay for good as our 2 Senior Correspondent reports. Of us familiar with the situation you invite someone over to say a friend they stay and stay and stay you drop a hint you know its getting late in the tide but they just dont get it. America is a force for good in the middle east and a delegation sam to iraq would be dedicated to discussing how to be recommit to our Strategic Partnership not to discuss troop withdrawal what complicates things is that your unwelcome guest is heavily armed and has a tendency to how do you put this kill your other guests you call make this up americans kill and arabian general in iraq iran then shoots back a bunch of Ballistic Missiles in revenge out of iraq i mean these poor rocky guys theyve done nothing and everyones bombing them so you can understand if theyre a little sick of it all and point to the door we want to restart the civil war again among the shia we dont want this to happen were not a battlefield between the usa and iran so whoever wants to hear the usa should do that outside of this country. All of these troops must leave because they have turned iraq into a battlefield its astonishing the americans are saying no we dont care that you voted for us to leave we wont and just in case that wasnt enough of a slap in the face actually going to call more of their friends over to iraq nato played and then you have any middle east you know they told me i said what a beautiful name nato personnel in the region to know youre supposed to us to be honest with you because this is an international problem. Today and need to delegation is at the state department to discuss increasing netas role in the iraq situation is absurd it makes a joke a mockery of International Law and simple decency and as does anything absurd has the internet buzzing. America is a force for good in the middle east and well start a civil war to prove you need our protection given military forces the against the wishes of the people who live there its called occupation when we said we wanted to bring you democracy we did not mean you cant use it to make your own decisions iraq asks u. S. Troops to leave the country but president pompei o refuses instead his state Department Issues a statement the 1st sentence reads america is a force for good in the middle east remember if you say i am so cool then youre not cool theres a lesson here i suppose you cant be friends with a superpower theyll call your friend patch on the head but when push comes to shove you are just another poor bombed out nation thats going to do as youre told no its right or Abdel Bari Atwan and political analysts. Gave us their reaction to the increasingly messy a 3 way conflict. The critics as you know well fighting for isis and there are we dont want them to come back but this is completely fabricated excuses to be honest because this is the. It is it is that i shammed it is they are iraqi it is that it really is a whole issue. And this is there and very completely you know i dont believe there is a chance of this i mean. Unless you have. To come back and do 12. 00 climbers then this is the only the only way for those that say to come back. Im going to pull out. Here today and actually im going to lucian. Problem this is all part of the ratcheting up trying to show that iran is the one lined state iran is doing things which are not really in the interest of the public and you know usa is is is good for the world but really i would like to say that you know what mr. Trump was saying that they took every but i think what would be a really good titan is that r. And b. Islamic republic middle east without the usa there then all of the problems that we have will disappear and then we could get to some truthful conversation and having a narrative which has some bases and a logical basis to any communication. U. S. Aviation authority has proposed a 5000000. 00 fine on boeing for allegedly putting to fact of parts and to at 737. 00 max planes internal memos from the company have been released suggesting staff were aware of numerous problems with the aircraft but fail to alert inspectors. I still havent been forgiven by god for the covering up i did last year would you put your family on in maximally to craft i wouldnt know. These designed by clones certain supervised by monkeys more than 100 pages of internal communications were delivered to congressional investigators as part of a probe into how that boeing 737 maxed out was certified safe before 2 major plane crashes the planes manufacturer released a statement expressing regret over the content of the communications between its employees and also gave assurances it had made significant changes to enhance its safety procedures the manufacturer had its entire 737 max fleet grounded last year after being involved in 2 deadly crashes with Ethiopian Airlines and denise has line air 346 people were killed in those tragedies problems with the automated Flight Control system are thought to have contributed to the fatal crashes. Some of them imo suggesting that boeing a limited Pilot Training on simulators as a cost cutting measure aviation safety advocate gideon believes that was a serious mistake. Most flight conversion training happens in simulators even even conversion to the type a lot of derivatives are given. So thats not unusual i think one of the problems that bring painted themselves into a corner a little bit with the recent months burton was trying to make it cheaper. To operate in terms of a common. Pool with the earlier models of 737 specifically the astonishingly successful and g. 7 series as people in Flight Safety community certainly synchronicities expensive trial an accident might say this isnt the ultimate station of that particular mantra the cost to blow it. Out of the problems with a sentence or something much program i dont think and were people have tried to calculate it but i think i think its beyond. The german chancellor arrives in moscow on saturday to meet with latimer putting michaels visit was originally planned for the ukraine conflict and crisis and libya but is now being overshadowed by the military escalation between the u. S. And iran as well as washingtons efforts to stop russias nord stream to gas pipeline to germany arties peter oliver has more. Difficult times that angular merkel arrives in moscow for what will be her 19th visit to russia as german chancellor certain to be up for discussion between herself and president Vladimir Putin taking energy out of the Current Situation in the middle east and the standoff between iran and the United States and Getting Energy from russia into germany via the nord stream 2 gas pipeline. Chancellor merkel and president putin are in agreement when it comes to a deescalation of tension in the middle east mrs merkel Spokes Person stressing the need for cool heads this week its constant its important that all involved parties exercise restraint and turn away from the logic of escalation towards the logic of dialogue both the federal chancellery and the kremlin have their concern at the situation in the region with the government here in berlin sounding less than convinced by the justification given by washington for the assassination of a rainy and Major General because some solid money. It was we saw the explanation of the u. S. For this strike but the information to comprehend the explanation is missing force of the school year that mildred violence must only be the last resort. Germany and russia were both architects of the a rainy a nuclear deal that now looks to be lying in tatters following 1st donald trump pulling the United States out of it unilaterally back in 2018 and just this week the iranian side saying theyre not going to live up to their end of the bargain following the killing of solomonic its bizarre its very concerning that iran is failing to meet is no longer meeting several of its obligations and what it has now announced is that it will no longer meet further obligations this is another wrong step in the wrong direction and naturally raises serious questions about the future of this agreement. When it comes to nord stream to a balancing act between washington and moscow will be required from the chancellor the United States is very keen to sell germany its liquefied natural gas but it doesnt want germany to receive gas from russia slapping sanctions on the project and making overt threats towards the european businesses and Companies Involved you face a binary choice stop maam and leave the pipeline unfinished or make a foolish attempt to rush to complete the pipeline and risk putting your company out of business forever with the pipeline just a few dozen kilometers from its planned destination the project that was planned to be up and running at the end of last year now in and visit completion date at the end of this year angle americal knows germany needs that gas at the price russia is willing to sell it there the flag of the other thing is if no 1. 00 wants to be unilaterally dependent on russia but we received russian gas not only the d. D. R. Where i lived but also in west germany during the cold war and they dont see why the times today should be so much worse that we can no longer see russia remains a partner im going to merkel can expect a warm welcome in a wintery moscow helped in part by the fact that both russia and germany. Find themselves on the same side of the arguments in 2 major issues the russian president Vladimir Putin has also called for calm heads in the middle east and the government in moscow calls the sanctions that have been put in place on the north stream project illegal expect both chancellor merkel and president putin to be singing from the same song sheet when it comes to joint statements on these particular issues but theyll also be close attention paid later on today to what im glad merkel has to say and how closely she aligns herself with the russian president and thats going to be paid attention to not just here in berlin but also in brussels and in washington peter all of a berlin. Lastly a short reminder of our breaking news this hour iran has admitted that its military an intentionally shot down ukraines passenger plane on wednesday due to human error for mr hobbs every of the air it was caused by u. S. Adventurism a military statement carried by state media also says the plane was mistaken for a hostile target a jet went down near tehran on wednesday killing all 176 people on board more on that along with todays other Headline News and about 30 minutes for you thanks for tuning in