Published 13:22 IST, January 12th 2020
Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei's Twitter account temporarily suspended
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's Twitter has reportedly been suspended. The ban comes after Iran admitted to shooting down the Ukranian plane.
The official Twitter account of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reportedly been suspended. Khamenei's latest tweet had hit out at the Trump administration and claimed that the assassination of General Qasem Solemani by the United States has united all of Iran.
Account suspended for unusual activity
The account was of the Supreme Leader was blocked after Iran admitted to unintentionally shooting down a Ukranian passenger jet which resulted in the death of all 176 people onboard. Twitter has not yet released an official statement about the reason behind the account being blocked.
Earlier Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei has issued an apology over the downing of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS 752. The apology comes after Iran issued a statement on Saturday morning admitting that the plane was hit by its a surface-to-air missile. Iran stated that it was a "human error" which led to the catastrophe that killed 176 people.
In a statement, the supreme leader said that the causalities are even more severe after the results of the investigation. He went on to apologize for the act and expressed "deep sympathy". He also urged the government and the forces to pursue any shortcomings have emerged from the incident.
Shortly after the announcement was made, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani tweeted an apology and later issued another statement where he again apologized to the family members of the victims and tried to explain the situation which led to the unfortunate event.
"In the atmosphere of threats and intimidation by the aggressive American regime against the Iranian nation after the martyrdom of General Qasem Soleimani, and in order to defend ourselves against possible attacks by the American Army, the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran were on full alert, which unfortunately led to this terrible catastrophe taking the lives of dozens of innocent people because of human error and mistaken shooting," Rouhani said in a tweet.
Updated 13:22 IST, January 12th 2020