Javad Zarif warns against 'politicising' Ukrainian plane crash

Tehran [Iran], Jan 18 (ANI): Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday warned against any attempt to politicise the recent Ukrainian passenger plane crash that claimed lives of 176 in the outskirts of Tehran more than a week ago, the state media said.

"Politicising this tragedy" must be avoided, Zarif said in a tweet after meeting his Canadian counterpart Francois-Philippe Champagne in Oman, adding that the focus should be directed on the victims' families.

According to local media reports, the Iranian Foreign Ministry, in a statement said that Iran and Canada decided that the expert teams of two sides should continue to inform each other over any developments regarding the plane tragedy. They also agreed to hold another meeting in the future, the statement read.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday said that the Iranian "enemies" used the passenger plane crash to "tempt and provoke" anti-government sentiments and to undermine the assassination of the Iranian senior commander by the United States, Xinhua news agency reported.

On January 8, a Ukrainian Boeing 737-800 passenger plane crashed near Tehran, and all of the 176 people onboard were killed. The incident coincided with Iran's missile attack on the U.S. military base in Iraq.

Later, Iran's armed forces confirmed that an "unintentional" launch of a military missile by the country shot down the Ukrainian airliner. (ANI)