Rouhani Says Iran Must Eliminate Flaws In Air Defense System After Downing Ukrainian Jet

Iran must eliminate flaws in the national air defense system after it had falsely identified the Ukrainian Boeing 737 as an enemy plane and downed it, President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday

TEHRAN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th January, 2020) Iran must eliminate flaws in the national air defense system after it had falsely identified the Ukrainian Boeing 737 as an enemy plane and downed it, President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, the Iranian General Staff admitted that the Ukrainian plane had been unintentionally shot down by the Iranian forces as they were waiting for a possible US response to Tehran's strikes on US military bases in Iraq.

"It is necessary to eliminate all weaknesses of the air defense systems, take all the measures to prevent such disasters in the future," Rouhani said in a statement published on his website.

The Iranian president also ordered the relevant bodies to make all the steps needed for paying compensations for the plane crash.