Timeline of the Conflict:
August 1953: The covert actions of the Secret Information Service (SIS) of the United Kingdom (UK) and the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) of the United States (US) connived a military coup- Operation Ajax, to topple the then Iran’s elected Prime Minister (PM) Mohammed Mossadegh, an ardent nationalist- who had plans to nationalize Iran’s oil industry and turn oil profits into investments for the Iranian people.
January 1963: Last Shah of Iran-Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi- who had close ties with the West, introduced the ‘White Revolution’ and was the harbinger of a series of reforms.
for example: allowing women
Iran’s Islamic fundamentalists, Shi’ite clergy and the landlords led by Ayatollah Khomeini, were enraged with Shah’s initiatives based on liberal ideals of western thought.
1979: They were successful in toppling the Shah's Rule fter years of protests and bloodshed. This came to be known as the Iranian Revolution.
The Iranian revolutionaries took to hostage 52 staff of the US embassy in Tehran for 444 days, following which the US severed all diplomatic relations 🤝❌with Iran, banned American exports to the country and expelled Iranian diplomats.
1983: Attack by Iran-backed militant group☮ Hezbollah in Beirut - killed 241 US Marines in Beirut.
Iran was added to the list of🚫 state sponsors of terrorism.
July 3, 1988: American 🇺🇸cruiser USS Vincennes fired a surface-to-air missile and shot down an Iran Air Flight 655- a passenger ✈️(Tehran-Dubai) over the Persian Gulf and killed all 290 aboard. The cruiser commander👨✈️ displayed an ‘error in identification’ and termed the commercial aircraft as a fighter aircraft.
2001:
The 9/11 attack - George W. Bush administration to designate Iran as part of the “Axis of Evil” for supporting terrorism and pursuing weapons of mass destruction.
2002: Iran’s clandestine nuclear program ☢, when the National Council of Resistance on Iran (NCRI), an Iranian exile group, revealed information that Iran had built nuclear-related facilities at Natanz and Arak that it had not revealed to the IAEA.
2013: Obama-Rouhani administrations witnessed attempts at rapprochements between the US and Iran. The historic Iran nuclear deal between P5+1 (US, China, France, Russia and UK + Germany) and Iran was signed and was known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which freed over 100 billion dollars in frozen assets overseas for Iran and increased foreign access to the Iranian economy.
May 2018: President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the agreement and by November all the sanctions against Iran were reinstated.
2018:
Escalation of Regional Tension:
Oill tanker attacks in the Gulf, Highly sophisticated and synchronized attack against oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.
Aug 2018: Attacking of Saudi facilities and the Abha International Airport in August.
Sep 2018: Attack on the large State-owned Aramco facility at Abquaiq and Khurais on 14 September which caused major damage to Saudi oil output, had been claimed by the Houthis in Yemen.
27 Dec 2019: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah attacked an air base in Iraq where American and Iraqi forces were stationed. It killed a US civilian contractor and wounded several US and Iraqi service members.
Airstrikes against the Kataib Hezbollah fighters in Iraq and Syria were ordered within two days.
Incidentally, this move by the US was regretted by the EU, UK, France, China and Germany. Iran rejected US’ unilateral decision and vowed to defy the sanctions against it. Trump continued with his sanctions-strategy and imposed them on Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and other top officials of Iran including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IGRC) of Iran. IGRC was designated as a terrorist organization.//
http://www.ipsnews.net/2020/01/us-iran-confrontation-implications-india/
Role and Function of UN in tackling US-Iran Conflicts.
The United Nations came into being in 1945, following the devastation of the Second World War, with one central mission: the maintenance of international peace and security.
These activities often overlap and should reinforce one another, to be effective. The UN Security Council has the primary responsibility for international peace and security. The General Assembly and the Secretary-General play major, important, and complementary roles, along with other UN offices and bodies.
Supra-National, Multilateral Institution helps in keeping the negotiation, mediation intact.
Reactionary and Retaliatory measures of the Conflicting Parties are kept under check. This could prevent further escalation of the issues.
Mohammed Abdullah Al-Hadhrami, Minister for Foreign Affairs/Yemen also supported the outcomes of the comprehensive national dialogue and UN Security Council measures, particularly its resolution 2216 (2015), which demanded an end to the violence in Yemen and imposed sanctions on individuals it said were undermining the country’s stability.
August 1953: The covert actions of the Secret Information Service (SIS) of the United Kingdom (UK) and the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) of the United States (US) connived a military coup- Operation Ajax, to topple the then Iran’s elected Prime Minister (PM) Mohammed Mossadegh, an ardent nationalist- who had plans to nationalize Iran’s oil industry and turn oil profits into investments for the Iranian people.
January 1963: Last Shah of Iran-Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi- who had close ties with the West, introduced the ‘White Revolution’ and was the harbinger of a series of reforms.
for example: allowing women
Iran’s Islamic fundamentalists, Shi’ite clergy and the landlords led by Ayatollah Khomeini, were enraged with Shah’s initiatives based on liberal ideals of western thought.
1979: They were successful in toppling the Shah's Rule fter years of protests and bloodshed. This came to be known as the Iranian Revolution.
The Iranian revolutionaries took to hostage 52 staff of the US embassy in Tehran for 444 days, following which the US severed all diplomatic relations 🤝❌with Iran, banned American exports to the country and expelled Iranian diplomats.
1983: Attack by Iran-backed militant group☮ Hezbollah in Beirut - killed 241 US Marines in Beirut.
Iran was added to the list of🚫 state sponsors of terrorism.
July 3, 1988: American 🇺🇸cruiser USS Vincennes fired a surface-to-air missile and shot down an Iran Air Flight 655- a passenger ✈️(Tehran-Dubai) over the Persian Gulf and killed all 290 aboard. The cruiser commander👨✈️ displayed an ‘error in identification’ and termed the commercial aircraft as a fighter aircraft.
2001:
The 9/11 attack - George W. Bush administration to designate Iran as part of the “Axis of Evil” for supporting terrorism and pursuing weapons of mass destruction.
2002: Iran’s clandestine nuclear program ☢, when the National Council of Resistance on Iran (NCRI), an Iranian exile group, revealed information that Iran had built nuclear-related facilities at Natanz and Arak that it had not revealed to the IAEA.
2013: Obama-Rouhani administrations witnessed attempts at rapprochements between the US and Iran. The historic Iran nuclear deal between P5+1 (US, China, France, Russia and UK + Germany) and Iran was signed and was known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which freed over 100 billion dollars in frozen assets overseas for Iran and increased foreign access to the Iranian economy.
May 2018: President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the agreement and by November all the sanctions against Iran were reinstated.
2018:
Escalation of Regional Tension:
Oill tanker attacks in the Gulf, Highly sophisticated and synchronized attack against oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.
Aug 2018: Attacking of Saudi facilities and the Abha International Airport in August.
Sep 2018: Attack on the large State-owned Aramco facility at Abquaiq and Khurais on 14 September which caused major damage to Saudi oil output, had been claimed by the Houthis in Yemen.
27 Dec 2019: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah attacked an air base in Iraq where American and Iraqi forces were stationed. It killed a US civilian contractor and wounded several US and Iraqi service members.
Airstrikes against the Kataib Hezbollah fighters in Iraq and Syria were ordered within two days.
Incidentally, this move by the US was regretted by the EU, UK, France, China and Germany. Iran rejected US’ unilateral decision and vowed to defy the sanctions against it. Trump continued with his sanctions-strategy and imposed them on Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and other top officials of Iran including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IGRC) of Iran. IGRC was designated as a terrorist organization.//
http://www.ipsnews.net/2020/01/us-iran-confrontation-implications-india/
Role and Function of UN in tackling US-Iran Conflicts.
The United Nations came into being in 1945, following the devastation of the Second World War, with one central mission: the maintenance of international peace and security.
- The UN does this by working to prevent conflict;
- helping parties in conflict make peace; peacekeeping;
- and creating the conditions to allow peace to hold and flourish.
These activities often overlap and should reinforce one another, to be effective. The UN Security Council has the primary responsibility for international peace and security. The General Assembly and the Secretary-General play major, important, and complementary roles, along with other UN offices and bodies.
Preventive Diplomacy and Mediation
Supra-National, Multilateral Institution helps in keeping the negotiation, mediation intact.
Reactionary and Retaliatory measures of the Conflicting Parties are kept under check. This could prevent further escalation of the issues.
Member courties of UN offer Back-door Mediation and Negotiations Eg. Germany, Switzerland, France or other EU countries.
Peacekeeping - Preventing Escalation
UN Security Council resolution to ensure the enforcement of the JCPOA, and guarantee that the UN’s atomic energy agency, the IAEA, continues to have regular access to and more information on Iran’s nuclear programme, was adopted in 2015.
Countering Terrorism
Peacebuilding - Preventing Re-Escalation
Full implementation of resolution 2231, by all Member States “as an integral component of our collective conflict prevention efforts.”
Mr. Al-Hadrami affirmed support for the UN facilitated peace process and the efforts of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen. He pledged to engage positively and flexibly in all peace measures, namely the Gulf Initiative and its executive mechanism.
Mr. Al-Hadrami affirmed support for the UN facilitated peace process and the efforts of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen. He pledged to engage positively and flexibly in all peace measures, namely the Gulf Initiative and its executive mechanism.
Disarmament
The central demand in the first six resolutions was that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment program, as well as undertake several confidence-building measures outlined in a February 2006 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors resolution - including reconsidering the construction of its heavy-water reactor and ratifying the IAEA Additional Protocol. The council initially laid out these calls in a nonbinding Security Council presidential statement adopted in March 2006.
Chronology of Recent Events:
//15 May 2018
United States (US) pulled out of the Iran deal—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was signed in 2015 to ensure that Iran’s nuclear programme will be exclusively peaceful.
India’s trade with Iran stands at around $12 billion, and deficit with Iran stands at around $8 billion (5% of India’s total merchandise deficit). In 2017-18, India imported around 256 million tonnes of crude oil and its derived products worth $101 billion. Imports from Iran made up around 10% of this ($10 billion)—it is India’s third largest oil supplier after Saudi Arabia and Iraq. India and China are the largest importers of Iranian oil—accounting for 1.4mbpd of imports from Iran, which is about a third of the country’s total production.
Other major imports from Iran include fertilisers and organic & inorganic chemicals—India imported around $4.5 billion of fertilisers during 2017-18, and Iran ($0.5 billion) ranks amongst top three in India’s supplier of imported fertilisers. India’s exports to Iran mainly comprise of food items, organic chemicals and iron & steel. India may now resort to looking for waivers from the US or going back to using a mix of barter, rupee and gold to settle payments. Imposition of US sanctions might also adversely affect the development of Chabahar Port, which provides access to Afghanistan and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan.//
https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/will-india-get-impacted-by-us-iran-tussle/1167499/
//06 Aug 2019
Armed groups affiliated with the Al Qaeda and ISIL terror groups, appear to have intensified their activities in Yemen, Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) declared on Tuesday, describing the situation as an example of “deeply worrying developments” that have seriously impacted civilians over the past ten days.
Parts of the population in Al Dhale are not receiving any water supplies, she continued, with the only water reserve there, reportedly under the control of the Houthis, and many water pumps damaged or otherwise out of action.
In the statement, the spokesperson urged all parties to the conflict to “seek to de-escalate the situation, and to ensure that any attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are meaningfully investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice”.//
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/08/1043801
//28 Sep 2019
Denouncing Iran as a “rogue State that does not respect international law” or its obligations as a UN Member State, Mohammed Abdullah Al-Hadhrami, Minister for Foreign Affairs/Yemen said Iran and its “military arms in the Arab region, including Houthis and Hezbollah, pose a serious threat to our national security.”
he thanked Saudi Arabia for providing some $500 million to bolster theYemen humanitarian response plan. But he warned that Saudi Arabia and the wider international community’s efforts were being undermined not only by Iran-backed militias but by attacks he said were carried out by air assets belonging to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).//
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/09/1048102
//19 Dec 2019
//06 Jan 2020
Iran said it had carried out Tuesday night’s ballistic missile attack against two air bases used by US and other coalition forces in Iraq, in retaliation for the targeted killing on the outskirts of Baghdad airport on Friday.
The bases struck were the large Al Asad base, west of Baghdad, and another in Erbil, the centre of Iraq’s Kurdish region. The strikes came just hours after the burial of the influential general, marked by huge crowds, in Iran.//
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/01/1054961
//06 Jan 2020
A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said the deal struck between Iran and the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany was not yet dead and two-way communication was ongoing. "Our goal remains to save the agreement," the spokesman said. "We are in talks on that."
As has been the case since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018, Britain, France and Germany find themselves as mediators, trying to convince Iran to stick with the pact and the Americans that they are tough-minded allies who will not be deceived by Tehran.//
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-eu-strategy-analysis-idUSKBN1Z529A
//08 Jan 2020
Iran retaliated on Wednesday for Soleimani's death by firing missiles at military facilities housing U.S. troops in Iraq. U.S. President Donald Trump said no Americans were hurt, soothing fears that Soleimani's death and the Iranian response could spark a wider conflict in the Middle East.
The killing of Soleimani in Baghdad on Friday was justified under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, wrote Craft in the letter seen by Reuters, adding "the United States is prepared to take additional actions in the region as necessary to continue to protect U.S. personnel and interests."
Under Article 51, countries are required to "immediately report" to the 15-member Security Council any measures taken in exercising the right of self-defense. The United States used Article 51 to justify taking action in Syria against Islamic State militants in 2014.
In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft said the United States also stands "ready to engage without preconditions in serious negotiations with Iran, with the goal of preventing further endangerment of international peace and security or escalation by the Iranian regime."//
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-security-usa-un-idUSKBN1Z809Q
//09 Jan 2020
The UN chief repeated his four-point message to world leaders, too, "Stop escalation. Exercise maximum restraint. Re-start dialogue", and "renew international cooperation." "This appeal remains as important today as it was on Monday. For his part, the Secretary-General will continue his active engagement with relevant actors," the statement said.
Guterres said it is "our common duty to make every effort to avoid a war in the Gulf that the world cannot afford. We must not forget the terrible human suffering caused by war. As always, ordinary people pay the highest price," Guterres said.//
https://www.firstpost.com/world/amid-us-iran-tensions-un-chief-antonio-guterres-says-world-cannot-afford-another-war-asks-all-parties-to-exercise-maximum-restraint-7883041.html
//10 Jan 2020
Switzerland, which has represented U.S. interests with Iran since shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has been the primary go-between.
Most communications so far are believed to have been aimed at deescalation, urging both sides to hold fire and preventing events from spiraling out of control, rather than opening talks.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who came close to persuading Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to sit at a negotiating table during meetings at the United Nations last fall, spoke at length with Rouhani following the Iranian missile strikes.
An emergency meeting of the European Union has been called for on 10th Jan in Brussels.
The tighter Washington has turned the screws, the more Iran has stepped up its tempo of guerrilla attacks on Saudi oil installations and on cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz, among other operations.//
https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/back-channel-diplomacy-switzerland-mediating-between-the-us-and-iran-1.68912633
//21 Jan 2020
The report said Russian-made Tor-M1 missiles were launched at the Kyiv-bound Ukraine International Airlines jet shortly after it took off from Tehran at 6.12am local time. The aircraft last contact with air-traffic control at 8,100ft and disappeared from Iranian surveillance radars at 6.18am.
The aerospace chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite, hardline branch of the Iranian military, said earlier this month a missile operator misidentified the plane as a cruise missile and had a 10-second window to decide whether to fire at the target. “Under such circumstances, he decides to make that bad decision: he engages, the missile is fired, and the plane is hit,” Ali Hajizadeh said.//
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/21/iran-admits-it-fired-two-missiles-at-ukrainian-passenger-jet
The downing of the Ukrainian airliner has an eerie similarity with the downing of the Iran Air in 1988 by the US. The reasons cited for both incidents were ‘human error’, and ‘miscalculation’.
//15 May 2018
United States (US) pulled out of the Iran deal—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was signed in 2015 to ensure that Iran’s nuclear programme will be exclusively peaceful.
India’s trade with Iran stands at around $12 billion, and deficit with Iran stands at around $8 billion (5% of India’s total merchandise deficit). In 2017-18, India imported around 256 million tonnes of crude oil and its derived products worth $101 billion. Imports from Iran made up around 10% of this ($10 billion)—it is India’s third largest oil supplier after Saudi Arabia and Iraq. India and China are the largest importers of Iranian oil—accounting for 1.4mbpd of imports from Iran, which is about a third of the country’s total production.
Other major imports from Iran include fertilisers and organic & inorganic chemicals—India imported around $4.5 billion of fertilisers during 2017-18, and Iran ($0.5 billion) ranks amongst top three in India’s supplier of imported fertilisers. India’s exports to Iran mainly comprise of food items, organic chemicals and iron & steel. India may now resort to looking for waivers from the US or going back to using a mix of barter, rupee and gold to settle payments. Imposition of US sanctions might also adversely affect the development of Chabahar Port, which provides access to Afghanistan and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan.//
https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/will-india-get-impacted-by-us-iran-tussle/1167499/
//06 Aug 2019
Armed groups affiliated with the Al Qaeda and ISIL terror groups, appear to have intensified their activities in Yemen, Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) declared on Tuesday, describing the situation as an example of “deeply worrying developments” that have seriously impacted civilians over the past ten days.
Parts of the population in Al Dhale are not receiving any water supplies, she continued, with the only water reserve there, reportedly under the control of the Houthis, and many water pumps damaged or otherwise out of action.
In the statement, the spokesperson urged all parties to the conflict to “seek to de-escalate the situation, and to ensure that any attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are meaningfully investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice”.//
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/08/1043801
//28 Sep 2019
Denouncing Iran as a “rogue State that does not respect international law” or its obligations as a UN Member State, Mohammed Abdullah Al-Hadhrami, Minister for Foreign Affairs/Yemen said Iran and its “military arms in the Arab region, including Houthis and Hezbollah, pose a serious threat to our national security.”
he thanked Saudi Arabia for providing some $500 million to bolster theYemen humanitarian response plan. But he warned that Saudi Arabia and the wider international community’s efforts were being undermined not only by Iran-backed militias but by attacks he said were carried out by air assets belonging to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).//
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/09/1048102
//19 Dec 2019
“Certain actions taken by the United States, since its withdrawal from the Plan, are contrary to the goals of the Plan”, she said and the re-imposition of its national sanctions lifted under the Plan, and decision not to extend waivers for the trade in oil with Iran.
But according to the IAEA, she added, Iran since July “has surpassed JCPOA-stipulated limits on its uranium enrichment level, as well as limits on its stockpiles of heavy water and low-enriched uranium.”
Steps have also been taken on centrifuge research and development: “Iran has stated that all these steps are reversible and that it intends to remain in the Plan. It is important that Iran returns to full implementation of the Plan, and refrain from further steps to reduce its commitments”, said the UN Political and Peacebuilding Affairs chief.//
//06 Jan 2020
Iran said it had carried out Tuesday night’s ballistic missile attack against two air bases used by US and other coalition forces in Iraq, in retaliation for the targeted killing on the outskirts of Baghdad airport on Friday.
The bases struck were the large Al Asad base, west of Baghdad, and another in Erbil, the centre of Iraq’s Kurdish region. The strikes came just hours after the burial of the influential general, marked by huge crowds, in Iran.//
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/01/1054961
//06 Jan 2020
A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said the deal struck between Iran and the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany was not yet dead and two-way communication was ongoing. "Our goal remains to save the agreement," the spokesman said. "We are in talks on that."
As has been the case since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018, Britain, France and Germany find themselves as mediators, trying to convince Iran to stick with the pact and the Americans that they are tough-minded allies who will not be deceived by Tehran.//
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-eu-strategy-analysis-idUSKBN1Z529A
//08 Jan 2020
Iran retaliated on Wednesday for Soleimani's death by firing missiles at military facilities housing U.S. troops in Iraq. U.S. President Donald Trump said no Americans were hurt, soothing fears that Soleimani's death and the Iranian response could spark a wider conflict in the Middle East.
The killing of Soleimani in Baghdad on Friday was justified under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, wrote Craft in the letter seen by Reuters, adding "the United States is prepared to take additional actions in the region as necessary to continue to protect U.S. personnel and interests."
Under Article 51, countries are required to "immediately report" to the 15-member Security Council any measures taken in exercising the right of self-defense. The United States used Article 51 to justify taking action in Syria against Islamic State militants in 2014.
In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft said the United States also stands "ready to engage without preconditions in serious negotiations with Iran, with the goal of preventing further endangerment of international peace and security or escalation by the Iranian regime."//
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-security-usa-un-idUSKBN1Z809Q
//09 Jan 2020
The UN chief repeated his four-point message to world leaders, too, "Stop escalation. Exercise maximum restraint. Re-start dialogue", and "renew international cooperation." "This appeal remains as important today as it was on Monday. For his part, the Secretary-General will continue his active engagement with relevant actors," the statement said.
Guterres said it is "our common duty to make every effort to avoid a war in the Gulf that the world cannot afford. We must not forget the terrible human suffering caused by war. As always, ordinary people pay the highest price," Guterres said.//
https://www.firstpost.com/world/amid-us-iran-tensions-un-chief-antonio-guterres-says-world-cannot-afford-another-war-asks-all-parties-to-exercise-maximum-restraint-7883041.html
//10 Jan 2020
Switzerland, which has represented U.S. interests with Iran since shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has been the primary go-between.
Most communications so far are believed to have been aimed at deescalation, urging both sides to hold fire and preventing events from spiraling out of control, rather than opening talks.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who came close to persuading Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to sit at a negotiating table during meetings at the United Nations last fall, spoke at length with Rouhani following the Iranian missile strikes.
An emergency meeting of the European Union has been called for on 10th Jan in Brussels.
The tighter Washington has turned the screws, the more Iran has stepped up its tempo of guerrilla attacks on Saudi oil installations and on cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz, among other operations.//
https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/back-channel-diplomacy-switzerland-mediating-between-the-us-and-iran-1.68912633
//21 Jan 2020
The report said Russian-made Tor-M1 missiles were launched at the Kyiv-bound Ukraine International Airlines jet shortly after it took off from Tehran at 6.12am local time. The aircraft last contact with air-traffic control at 8,100ft and disappeared from Iranian surveillance radars at 6.18am.
The aerospace chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite, hardline branch of the Iranian military, said earlier this month a missile operator misidentified the plane as a cruise missile and had a 10-second window to decide whether to fire at the target. “Under such circumstances, he decides to make that bad decision: he engages, the missile is fired, and the plane is hit,” Ali Hajizadeh said.//
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/21/iran-admits-it-fired-two-missiles-at-ukrainian-passenger-jet
The downing of the Ukrainian airliner has an eerie similarity with the downing of the Iran Air in 1988 by the US. The reasons cited for both incidents were ‘human error’, and ‘miscalculation’.
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