US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook is holding a press briefing on the situation in the Islamic Republic in Washington, DC.
The presser comes after a Ukrainian Boeing 737 crashed on 8 January near Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport, killing all 176 people on board. According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans, and three UK nationals were among the victims. Most of them were students.
The already existing tensions between the US and Iran were exacerbated earlier this month after the Iranian military admitted to unintentionally shooting down a Ukrainian jetliner with 176 people on board, having confused it with a hostile cruise missile in anticipation of a US attack on the same day as the IRGC carried out strikes on military bases housing American forces in Iraq in response to the assassination of top Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
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