What did Iran's admission set in motion?

What happened in Iran in the hours after the authorities admitted to shooting down a passenger jet? By 13 January 2020, the answer was already taking shape, and it reached well beyond the crash itself.

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.

The admission

On 11 January 2020, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps admitted that it had mistakenly shot down the plane as it took off from Tehran. The same day, Iran's president officially acknowledged that the country's armed forces had mistakenly downed the aircraft with a missile near the capital.

From vigils to protests

Also on 11 January 2020, vigils held in Iran for the victims turned into protests. According to videos posted on Twitter, hundreds of protesters in Tehran called for the resignation of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A diplomatic incident

The unrest drew in a foreign envoy. The British ambassador to Iran, Robert Macaire, was arrested on 11 January 2020 during the protests, after attending a vigil and then, according to the BBC, getting a haircut. Tasnim News Agency reported that he was held on suspicion of organising, provoking and directing radical actions. U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the arrest was a flagrant violation of international law. More than an hour later, Macaire was released.

Looking back

Taken together, the events of 11 January 2020 linked an admission of responsibility for the deaths of 176 people with open public anger in Tehran and a diplomatic dispute between London and the Iranian authorities. As of 13 January 2020, the admission had been made, the protests had begun and the ambassador had been freed.