Iran vehemently denied Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's claims late Thursday that evidence pointed to Tehran mistakenly striking the downed Ukrainian Boeing 737-800 jet earlier this week.
According to Channel News Asia, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said in a statement that Trudeau's claims were "a psychological warfare against Iran." Rabiei went on to challenge countries with victims on board the downed plane to "send it representatives" for the investigations.
Rabiei also called on the manufacturer, U.S. aviation giant Boeing to take part in the probe that looks into the reasons why the jet went down shortly after take-off from Tehran's airport.
Earlier on Thursday, Iran's civil aviation regulator said in an initial report earlier on Thursday that the airliner encountered technical issues after it took off and crashed. However, other western countries backed the Canadian government's claims.
U.S. President Donald Trump has also joined in the talk of the potential reasons for the tragic crash that took the lives of all 176 passengers on board. Trump indicated that White House officials believe Canada's theory of Iranian missiles unintentionally striking the jet.
It is worth noting that 63 Canadians were among the victims. There were also 11 Ukrainians, three British citizens, three Germans, four Afghans, 10 Swedes, and 82 Iranians on board the downed airliner.
CNN was able to obtain a video of a missile on the skies of Tehran. In the said video, the missile can be seen striking an object. It was also around the time the missile was launched when the Ukrainian Boeing 737-800 jet crashed.
The outlet noted that it could not verify the authenticity of the video submitted. Furthermore, the person who sent the file also has not responded to questions on how the footage was obtained.
Trudeau did say during a media briefing in Ottawa that the missile strike "may have been unintentional." British Prime Minister Boris Johnson echoed Canada's statement. He said the government is working with its Canadian counterparts to for "transparent investigation" on the matter.
Furthermore, an American official with knowledge of the intelligence retrieved by Western governments said two Russian SA-15 surface were used to launch missiles into the Tehran skyline at the time of the Boeing jet's crash.
Meanwhile, it was confirmed that Iran finally invited the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to formally take part in the investigations after previously stating that it would not give the recovered black boxes to Boeing or Washington.
The NTSB has yet to confirm whether it will join the probe soon but a source with knowledge of the situation said the agency already agreed to join the investigation.
