Judiciary Spox: US, Britain dishonest in expression of sympathy to Iranians

Tehran, Jan 14, IRNA – Iran’s Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said on Tuesday that the United States and Britain are not sincere when expressing sympathy to Iranians in the wake of the Ukrainian airplane crash. “They prevented international and popular aid coming into Iran when the country was hit by flood early this year (March 2019); if they actually loved Iranians, they wouldn’t commit such criminal action,” Esmaili stressed. He went on to say that the US, Britain and the Zionist Regime are angry about both the presence of Iranians in the events like funeral held for the IRGC great commander General Qasem Soleimani and also the IRGC slap in the face of the United States by the missile attack on US airbase in Baghdad. He also said that Iran will sue the US military and government and its president Donald Trump for the assassination of General Soleimani and his companions both in Iranian and Iraqi courts as well as the International Criminal Court. The US army assassinated IRGC Quds force commander Lieutenant General Qasem Soleimani and the Deputy Commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), known as Hash al-Shaabi, Abu Mahdi Al-Mohandes and their companions on January 3. The IRGC responded by a missile attack on Eyn al-Assad airbase in Baghdad that hosts American forces. On the brief detention of British Ambassador to Tehran Rob Macaire, the spokesman underlined that Iran respects international conventions like Vienna Convention on diplomatic affairs "but this cannot be one-sided… Article 41 of the convention requires all the people who enjoy diplomatic immunity and advantages to respect the host country’s law and rules and avoid intervention in its internal affairs.” Macaire was briefly detained by the Iranian police on Saturday night while attending illegal rallies in Tehran. He was then released as soon as Iranian security forces recognized his identity. Esmaili said that the Judiciary as the country's prominent legal entity argued that the British Ambassador was a persona non grata. On the Ukrainian plane crash, the spokesman said that the Judiciary is following up the case and has arrested some people involved in the incident. He also vowed to protect the rights of the victims and their families. A Ukrainian airliner crashed last week shortly after it took off from Imam Khomeini international airport near Tehran. Iran's General Staff of Armed Forces took full responsibility for the downing of the plane "due to human error" and apologized for the incident. Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish