Gopalan Writes on Iran’s Fake Apology

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After three days of attributing the shooting down of a civilian aircraft in Iran to mechanical error, the government finally came forth and said it was due to human error. But the apology statement they issued won’t stand up to international law. From Dr. Sandeep Gopalan’s article:

Now, Iran must be called to account with its own argument. Iran’s arguments before the ICJ in 1989 could come back to bite it in 2020. Iran had every opportunity to establish that the aircraft was civilian, it knew the flight path of the airplane and, despite heightened alert and tension, its forces are trained to distinguish between civilian aircraft and military targets. Finally, as it argued so powerfully in 1989, Iran’s actions are reckless and grossly negligent. If Iran’s previously extreme arguments are applied now, the question is whether the Iranian regime should be prosecuted for war crimes under the recklessness standard.

Image Credit: Getty Images

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