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LAST UPDATE | 10 Jan 2020
THE US HAS promised “appropriate action” in response to its assessment that an Iranian missile was responsible for downing a Ukrainian airliner that crashed outside Tehran.
The Iranian government has denied playing a role in the killing of all 176 people on board.
Secretary of state Mike Pompeo became the highest-level US official to directly pin the blame on Iran, after Canadian, Australian and British leaders announced similar intelligence conclusions on Thursday.
“We do believe it is likely that that plane was shot down by an Iranian missile,” he said.
Pompeo said an investigation would continue into the incident and that once it was complete he was “confident that we and the world will take appropriate action as a response”.
Pompeo’s words came as he and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said the new sanctions will target eight senior Iranian officials involved in “destabilising” activities in the Middle East as well as Tuesday’s missile strike on US bases in Iraq.
Mnuchin said President Donald Trump will issue an executive order imposing sanctions on anyone involved in the Iranian textile, construction, manufacturing or mining sectors.
They will also impose separate sanctions against the steel and iron sectors.
“As a result of these actions, we will cut off billions of dollars of support to the Iranian regime,” the treasury secretary said.
Allegations
Leaders said the plane appeared to have been unintentionally hit by a surface-to-air missile.
Earlier, Iran denied Western allegations that one of its own missiles downed the airliner that crashed early on Wednesday, hours after Iran launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles at two US bases in Iraq to avenge the killing of its top general in an American air strike last week.
“What is obvious for us, and what we can say with certainty, is that no missile hit the plane,” Ali Abedzadeh, head of Iran’s national aviation department, told a press conference.
“If they are really sure, they should come and show their findings to the world” in accordance with international standards, he added.
Hassan Rezaeifar, the head of the Iranian investigation team, said recovering data from the black box flight recorders could take more than a month and that the entire investigation could stretch into next year.
He also said Iran may request help from international experts if it is not able to extract the flight recordings.
The ballistic missile attack on the bases in Iraq caused no casualties, raising hopes that the standoff over the killing of General Qassem Soleimani would end relatively peacefully, though Iran has sent mixed signals over whether its retaliation is complete.
Public opinion
If the US or Canada were to present incontrovertible evidence that the plane was shot down by Iran, even if unintentionally, it could have a dramatic impact on public opinion in Iran.
The Iranian public had rallied around the leadership after the killing of Gen Soleimani last Friday, with hundreds of thousands joining the general’s funeral processions in several cities, in an unprecedented display of grief and unity.
But sentiments in Iran are still raw over the government’s crackdown on large-scale protests late last year sparked by an economic crisis exacerbated by US sanctions.
Several hundred protesters were reported to have been killed in the clampdown.
Those fissures could quickly break open again if Iranian authorities are seen to be responsible for the deaths of 176 people, mainly Iranians or dual Iranian-Canadian citizens.
Iran still points to the accidental downing of an Iranian passenger jet by US forces in 1988 – which killed all 290 people aboard – as proof of American hostility.
US, Canadian and British officials said on Thursday it is “highly likely” that Iran shot down the Boeing 737, which crashed near Tehran.
US officials said the airliner might have been mistakenly identified as a threat.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose country lost at least 63 citizens in the downing, said “we have intelligence from multiple sources including our allies and our own intelligence”.
“The evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile,” he said.
The US officials did not say what intelligence they had that pointed to an Iranian missile, believed to be fired by a Russian Tor system, known to Nato as the SA-15.
But they acknowledged the existence of satellites and other sensors in the region, as well as the likelihood of communication interceptions and other similar intelligence.
Western countries may hesitate to share information on such a strike because it comes from highly classified sources.
Videos
Videos verified by the Associated Press appear to show the final seconds of the ill-fated airliner, which had just taken off from Iran.
In one video, a fast-moving light can be seen through the trees as someone films from the ground.
The light appears to be the burning plane, which plummets to the earth as a huge fireball illuminates the landscape.
Someone off-camera says in Farsi: “The plane has caught fire. … In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful. God, please help us. Call the fire department!”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said “the missile theory is not ruled out, but it has not been confirmed yet”.
In a Facebook post, he reiterated his call “on all international partners” – the US, Britain and Canada in particular – to share data and evidence relevant to the crash.
He also announced plans to discuss the investigation with Mr Pompeo.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Vadym Prystaiko tweeted that he and the president met US embassy officials on Friday and obtained “important data” about the crash.
The minister did not specify what kind of data it was, but said it would be “processed by our specialists”.
In an interview with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham that aired late on Thursday, Mr Pompeo said commercial airliners need to know if it is safe to fly into and out of Tehran.
“If the international community needs to shut down that airport, so be it,” he said. “We need to get to the bottom of this very, very quickly.”
Germany’s Lufthansa airline said it and subsidiaries are cancelling flights to and from Tehran for the next 10 days as a precautionary measure, citing the “unclear security situation for the airspace around Tehran airport”.
Other airlines have been making changes to avoid Iranian airspace.
Britain’s Foreign Office has advised against all travel to Iran, and against all air travel to, from or within the country.
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Disgraceful that gardai are expected to work in these conditions. The government have been lying to the public for years by telling them that the organisation is properly resourced. Now they’ve been found out
If I work in an office and am unhappy with my job I look for a new job. Being a Garda is only a job for life if they want it to be, nobody is stopping Gardaí from entering the jobs market to find new employment and a happier work environment………
It’s not so easy to move from a permanent and pensionable job out into the unknown.
There was a damning report in the Sindo today – an article about a report morelike ….
It wasn’t good reading and I only glanced at it …
It seems that a woman and her child were left out in as blizzard after their car was seized for no Road tax …
I didn’t read anymore in fairness !
I don’t think that is what the power of the Road Traffic Act is meant to deliver – bankers can be arrested by appointment but step on the Queen’s highway and the Gardaí are ordered to be very abrupt – a disjoint in Law there somewhere !
I agree Green Monkey, nothing stopping them from looking elsewhere. Or could it be difficult for most Gardai to do so as they have little or no post secondary school education???? Hmmmm. I respect our police force in general and they do a good job with their resources but we must look at the poor standards if education amongst them, it’s not acceptable in my opinion.
@ oisin I’d say most Gardai have forgotten more than u will ever learn young chap
Sincerely doubt it Mannix but would love to hope that is the case (thanks for the ‘young’ compliment btw. delighted to be called that again!)… Im guessing honesty about our poor level of education in general in Eire Inc is not liked as per usual by the masses… Let us roll on in ignorance!
Or, do the same work abroad!
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When I see stories like this it makes me think, if we’d had a responsible government in the boom years and had not blown all that property bubble revenue buying elections with extra 10ers on things like children s allowance, and cutting the tax base until it was dangerously narrow…if we’d had the brains and the foresight imagine we’d spent even half of that money on capital.finishing Transport 21, upgrading Garda stations like these (or just building new ones, the one in the pic does not even look salvageable)
But where did the money go instead? To give a middle class the illusion of wealth with a few extra quid in spending money…for just that week or that year…and now all that money is spent and gone and we’ve nothing to show for it except some decking or an SUV out in the commuter belt maybe. Now here we are ready to make all those same mistakes all over again with the demands for ps pay hikes and tax cuts starting all over again.
I was in a small garda station in tipp once doing some maintenance & they had no hot running water, no kitchen facilities for cooking & it was infested with rats & there was dampness literally going out of the walls through the paint. it should have been closed down.
It’s a sorry state of affairs when the rats are put off by being facilitated in such kips!!
I think it’s wrong to put the blame solely on the “middle class” I agree the point ur trying to make hits the nail on the head but they weren’t bank heads handing out millions in loans to property investors an heads of construction companies etc.. remember where ALL the money went to, don’t single out “middle class” people.. even at that I hate the terms of fitting into certain “classes”.. and at the end of the day the “middle class” really have the short straw now where repayments are concerned.. also even with the bubble ended now look at the likes of irish water an try tell me money isn’t been stupidly wasted in millions anymore an we’ve learned any type of lesson…
Awful…it can’t be legal to work in these conditions…
In fairness it’s not just gardai and garda stations that have these issues. A year or so ago I was shown the male changing room of a certain hospital, to describe it as small would be an understatement, it had over 100 shoebox type lockers but no toilet or hand washing facilities. There was a note on the wall from a manager stating in no uncertain terms that the male staff could use the public toilet in the Accident and Emergency Department of this hospital. I won’t say where it was but, it had only 1 or 2 toilets in the Accident and Emergency Department which is one of the busiest in the country. As the staff member who showed it to me pointed out this has to be used not just for changing purposes but also by staff members who had certain illness like diabetes etc. yet they couldn’t even wash their hands. If the public saw what went on behind the scenes they’d be disgusted. Needless to say, he was able to point out the managers offices that had been redecorated.
But if criminal bankers were arrested then there would be loads of money for more Garda training recruitment facilities etc.
Can’t have your cake and eat it …..in one sense !
Gardai are very vocal when it comes to them voicing their own grievences for all to hear ,yet when it comes to complaints by the judicary and the public about the corrupt goings on in the force ,we are met with a blue wall of silence
Jane, you’re like a broken record on here. Always spurning out the same shite. If you’d take the time to look around you in the real world that Gardai operate in you’d see the real work that they do. It’s not them that squash penalty points and move people around to shut them up when they make noise – that would be the Garda authorities and their political sponsors. FG, FF, Labour and rest are all the same – they pretend things will be different when they get into power, but then they just engage in the same politics and look after their own. Status quo. I’m sure you wouldn’t put up with the conditions in Bailieboro Garda Station or live under death threats like the Gardai in Carbury. I suspect you might be one of the so called “working class” – the ones that don’t work that is.
Very well commented there Jane Ryan just to show how bright that they are most stations in the country have a very large telephone mast on the same site and they have to work there a lot of the time and the amount of radiation that they give off is not good but i have not heard anyone of them complaining
Well said Jane. Unfortunately no one is allowed to voice an opinion on the Journal that isn’t one of the majority without being subject to sustained abuse from some people. It amazes me that people who hold free speech in such high regard resort to bullying to prevent anyone speaking who they disagree with. As for penalty points being quashed, not squashed, I don’t think we can blame that one on the politicians.
So what’s your point Michael Vines? You think Gardai have a choice in whether they have mobile phone masts in their stations?
So what’s your point John Michael – free speech you say? That the likes of Jane and you can post on here means that you have the ability to get your point across – idiotic that they may be and all. On the penalty points being quashed or squashed, you’ll find that people understand the use of both words relating to that topic. I find that language needs to simple on here for some.
IJiester, how many rank and file garda have stood up and said the quashing of penalty points is wrong? When MC cabe, & Wilson, stood up they were harassed and intimidated and MC Cabe continues to be bullied. The rank and file garda now belong to the corrupt billionaire and do his bidding and carry out brutal assaults on his behalf as for the conditions they have to work in they spend most of the time parked up at the garage eating donuts and drinking coffee unless of course they have to attend to installing water meters which in turn is forcing austerity on people but they couldn’t care less. Stand up for yourselves the same way the rest of us have to.
Same s*it different day.. change the record will ya
There’d be no duties for Gardai at “protests” Martin if the criminal and militant element wouldn’t insist on taking them over. Gardai have no more interest in paying water charges or seeing them install meters than other working people. It suits the likes of you to point the finger and roar about Denis O Brien etc etc. Its the job of the Gardai to maintain order on the streets and the vast majority of taxpayers know this, and expect it to be done. The chip on your shoulder against Gardai is easy to spot from the language you use – either that or drinking coffee is a problem to you too. I’m sure you’d have a whinge if they were inside in the stations too. They’re not perfect, but they’re coming under more and more pressure. They’re numbers are still dropping, despite the spin coming from Garda HQ. My local Garda couldn’t do enough for people and works on his own time for any and every event in the area – all you have to do is ask. It says more about you than them that you couldn’t acknowledge the work that they do every day.
The important thing to remember Jane is Guards have more important things to do than care what you think
@ijLester. Why do you find it necessary to be abusive to people. Is there a history of people ignoring your views that makes you angry? You are insulting people who you don’t even know and are basing your assumptions on nothing. You need to take a good look at yourself. I’m not sure the Gardai would want someone like you speaking for them. Especially when you think everyone else understands the improper use of English as being correct, like yourself. That’s silly.
The criminal element don’t make me laugh, was Fiona Healy a criminal? Was the woman who had the glass door smashed in on top of her sinister? What IW are doing is illegal and the garda are backing them up and so are you, were all the political policing arrests really necessary? And if I have a chip on my shoulder it’s the corrupt authorities in this country that put it there, but you carry on been brainwashed. Btw it’s illegal to charge for the same service multiple times If I done it I would be jailed.
Martin, you clearly don’t read posts that disagree with your point of view. IW isn’t illegal – mad, corrupt and immoral maybe but this article is about conditions and equipment of Gardai all over the country – but yourself and your fellow anti-everything folks want to turn everything back to IW and Denis O Brien rants. The Gardai have to enforce the laws of the land – mad, bad or stupid as they may be and face sanctions if they don’t. They can’t pick and choose which ones to ignore, or which orders to disobey. Everything isn’t black and white – the Gardai live in the grey parts and don’t have the basic facilities to do it safely. That’s what the article is about – water isn’t mentioned anywhere.
Jester, it’s the garda that have given me and many more thousands of people the opportunity to mention IW, they are rapidly losing respect and when IW and DOB is gone they won’t get that respect back. And yes IW is illegal for the reasons I pointed out earlier would you pay your gas bill multiple times? You have very selectively failed to mention MC Cabe or Wilson, or Fiona Healy or the lady who had the glass door smashed in on top of her you must think these points are not worth responding to.
I’m just adhering to the advice a long since retired Garda once gave me – Never argue with a fool, as passers by might not be able to tell you apart.
That’s the type of reply I’d expect from someone who knew they’d lost the argument you’re not called jester for no reason are you.
You missed the point… again. I don’t want to argue with you on every part of your morons manifesto. Thread is about Garda station conditions and equipment available to them. Everything doesn’t come back to IW protests. Clearly to woman who got stuck in the doorway wasn’t the cleverest to stick herself into that situation, unfortunate it was that she got hurt for it. No same person who saw that footage saw Gardai do anything unreasonable. I have a life to get back to, and work to go to tomorrow so I’ll leave you to carry on your unrelated rants to yourself.
@ijLester. Fools, morons, no one listening to you speaking the truth. I hope nobody disagrees with you in work tomorrow or they will be for it. Or are you just a big mouth when hiding behind your computer? If someone like you is defending the actions of the Gardai then that speaks volumes about their behaviour. Either tow the line or we will bully you into it. That’s pretty frightening behaviour from people who are supposed to protect the public.
Calm down, calm down! The same person trying to correct my use of English earlier? Toe the line is the expression, not “tow”. There’s no problem with disagreeing, that’s how democracy works. Try sticking to the point. The article was about Garda stations, conditions and equipment. I’m not the one who veered off into unrelated rants about IW or Denis O Brien. I must go back to real life now.
Sorry for the delay in answering ijlester yes they have a choice you can buy a radiation meter for around two hundred euro it is a very cheap way to check is your life in danger and if it is you just refuse to go into that station. They say that gardai are putting their lives in danger a lot of times when they go to work which i can well understand but they should not have to put their lives in danger every time that they go to work, There is no safe dose of radiation no matter how small it is. I am not allowed to drive a car with defects you are not obliged to work in a dangerous area if you dont want to the choice is yours, but if you do more fool you
You realise that McCabe has not as of yet actually been vindicated? The Guerin report as states was not an investigation into the allegations.
You also realise that McCabe was the Sergeant in charge of the station he accuses of being mismanaged right?
But your all correct, if your unhappy with the building you leave, viola. I guess no one here is in a union and asks their bosses for better conditions and wage increases either?
Please stop using the phrase “third world conditions” for anything that is substandard. Go to a third world country and see how they live and maybe then you might gain some perspective on things.
Ryan i think our problems come from the bail out.Wait u c ryan people will vote them back.I hope i am wrong change is need badly in this country.
People will not vote FF in again.
Theyl come out then and beat people off the street over the same issue. Austerity .They have it both ways . They should stand up for others standing up for others. It makes sense .
A reverse in drive out bathroom sounds good to me. They are spoiled.
Denis’s Black&Tans should ask their boss for a payrise for all the work they are doing for him.
I was arrested in Turkey last week whilst on an a business trip. For playing “nude supermarket sweep”. But that’s another story.
I can tell you all first hand . That the facilities were a disgrace. I requested use of the bathroom and was shown to a hole in the ground beside the kitchen. The kebab for the send off breakfast was decent. All in all . I wouldn’t mind another night in a Turkish tank. #futureEire.
Better than some Irish police stations and the hole in the floor is standard sanitary ware in Turkey and such places.
‘third world conditions’
“third world police force”
nah, cops in the 3rd world are more professional.
Ijlester ,,,, would you ever get a grip and take of those rose tinted glasses that you got free in the sunday independent last year ,the world is a different place since denis gave them out with every paper of his ,yourself and s select few on here seem to be still wearing them, as for your comment id say im a lot more well off than yourself , but hey i dont brag because it none of your &@cking business what i or anyone else works at on this forum
Jane, I’ve never bought an Irish Independent in my life and I wouldn’t p*ss on Denis O Brien if he was on fire – but that’s beside the point. You’re the one with tunnel vision, seeing only what you want to see, or what suits your politics. As to your rant about being better off, you probably are – but again that wasn’t the point, that obviously went over your head.
Ijlester ,,,, i dont only see what i want to see if that was the case, i would see a great country to live in and a fair one , unfortunately i see what is out there day in and day out that is put out there by every section of the media ,corruption is rife in this country from gardai to politicans to bankers etc , yet these parasites walk away scot free , now if the gardai got of their high horses and done something real about it ,maybe they would have the garda stations that they are looking for ,until they do something about bankers white collar crime and the denis o b of ireland they should do what the rest of us citizens have to do ,and thats shut up or put up
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No sympathy for the coppers
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