What did Iran admit after Flight 752?

What had Iran's authorities said about the downing of a Kyiv-bound passenger jet by 16 January 2020, and how far had that account shifted? The days before that date were marked by denial, then admission, then unrest.

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was a scheduled service from Tehran to Kyiv. On 8 January 2020, the Boeing 737-800 was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shortly after takeoff, killing all 176 people on board.

From denial to admission

On 10 January 2020, Iranian authorities rejected the suggestion, made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, that an Iranian missile had brought the plane down. Iran's civil aviation chief said he was certain the aircraft had not been hit by a missile, and he continued to put the cause down to mechanical failure.

That position did not last. On 11 January 2020, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps admitted it had mistakenly shot down the plane as it took off from Tehran. Iran's president also officially acknowledged that the country's armed forces had erroneously struck the aircraft with a missile near the capital.

Vigils turn to protest

The admission was followed by public anger. Vigils held in Iran for the victims turned into protests on 11 January 2020. According to videos posted on Twitter, hundreds of protesters in Tehran called for the resignation of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The same day, the British ambassador to Iran, Robert Macaire, was arrested during the demonstrations, after attending a vigil and then, according to the BBC, getting a haircut. Tasnim News Agency said he was held on suspicion of organising, provoking and directing radical actions. UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the arrest was a flagrant violation of international law. Macaire was released more than an hour later.

The picture by 16 January 2020

By 16 January 2020, then, the sequence was clear. Iran had first insisted on a technical explanation, then conceded within a day of rejecting the missile theory that its own forces had fired on the aircraft. The admission came alongside street protests in Tehran and a diplomatic dispute with London over the detention of its ambassador.

For Ukraine, the central fact was the loss of all 176 people aboard a flight that had been bound for Kyiv. The reversal in Tehran confirmed what Canada's prime minister had suggested, but it did not alter that toll.