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Trudeau urges caution after Flight 752 downing
Summary
A look back at the Canadian prime minister's measured response a day after the Ukrainian airliner was shot down near Tehran.
How far did world leaders go in describing the destruction of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 in its first hours? On 9 January 2020, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave a cautious answer at a news conference.
The Boeing 737-800, flying from Tehran to Kyiv, had been shot down on 8 January 2020 by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shortly after takeoff. All 176 people on board were killed.
Trudeau said it was too early to draw definitive conclusions that the downing amounted to an act of war. That wording kept open the question of how the loss of the aircraft should be characterised, rather than settling it on the second day.
The same news conference carried a separate message. Trudeau condemned Iran's attack on U.S. bases in Iraq, placing the airliner's destruction alongside a wider regional confrontation in his remarks.
The two statements together show a restrained posture: firm on the attack on U.S. bases, careful on the nature of the airliner's downing. For Ukraine, whose national carrier operated the flight and whose capital was the destination, the day's public debate was still at an early stage.
