‘I wish I had been inside that plane’: Iran’s IRGC chief expresses sorrow over downing of Ukrainian jet

The top commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Major General Hossein Salami, expressed his deepest condolences, saying he had never felt more ashamed in his life than after the Ukrainian passenger jet tragedy.

Debriefing a session of Iran’s parliament on Sunday, Salami stated that the IRGC has no other purpose or wish “but to be torn into pieces for the sake of the security, welfare and peace of [the Iranian] people.”

I swear on the life of my children… I wish I had been inside that plane and fell down and burned along with those loved ones instead of witnessing this tragic incident. 

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was misidentified as an incoming cruise missile, according to Iran’s military, which was on high alert at the time of the incident following a strike against US assets in Iraq. According to the IRGC, the military never sought to hide the incident and immediately notified the authorities, but this information was not immediately disclosed publicly, pending an internal probe, as due procedure was to be followed.

Among the 176 people who perished in the tragedy, 147 were Iranians – including dozens of students with dual Canadian citizenship. Some of the mass vigils held for the victims across Iran turned into anti-government rallies, while Western officials and establishment figures wasted no time showing how much they admire the ‘courage’ of the Iranians who took to the streets to vent their anger and clash with authorities.

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