an unforgiving bold mistake iran's president admits his military shot down a ukrainian airliner killing all 176 people on board. term fully back to boyer watching al-jazeera line from a headquarters in doha also ahead oman mourned suit on cabooses a long time ruler known for promoting peace in an unstable region just hours after the death was announced and sometimes doesn't is mean new leads.

taiwan's democracy on the line as the self-will island chooses its new president. thank you very much for joining us after days of denials iran has admitted its military shot down a ukrainian passenger plane on wednesday killing all 176 people on board president hassan rouhani says it was an unforgivable mistake that iran deeply recreates the military says a boeing 737 was mistaken for a hostile target it was shot down just hours after ukrainian missile strikes on u.s. forces in iraq those strikes were in response to the u.s. assassination of an iranian general costs emslie money or we live to washington in just a moment with brunell standing by with reaction from baghdad for us to speak to our correspondent in tehran assad big assad an admission of responsibility from iran

after days of denying what's prompted it. absolutely there's been days of denial from the government officials here but we did see canada and the united states say that they did believe that the airline was bought down by an iranian missile we also saw a post on social media with the pained look that looked like it was already on fire before it hit the ground but also a new the new york times released a video that showed a projectile which we now know that was a missile go up into the air and strike aircraft the aircraft was then on fire and we have a video that shows it dropping to the ground and exploding on impact and. i have been denying this over the last few days but they did invite officials from other countries to come and join the joint reagan led investigation we

they also said that this was lies the government said that this was lies and western propaganda but now the iranians are waking up to the government admitting that it wasn't fact in the rainy and that port the airplane down the general staff of the military has said that it was a mistake it was human error that the plane had taken a turn towards a sensitive revolutionary guard site and missiles were fired by mistake apologized and they said that the condolences of with the families of the victims right as you said the reagan government saying this was human error are they saying any more about that and what kind of fallout can we expect both domestically and internationally. well president rouhani has tweeted out this morning and he said the armed forces internal investigation has concluded that regrettably missiles fired to human error caused the horrific crash

of the ukrainian playing and the death of 176 innocent people he went on to say that the investigation will continue to identify and prosecute. and get this unforgiving and forgivable mistake now what we're seeing here is people saw the very 1st time seeing that the government is actually actually acknowledging that they've made a mistake this is a bit of a watershed moment but let me remind you what the government had been saying the government spokesman yesterday has said that this was lies by the united states and its friends and that the united states of rubbing salt in the wounds of the families of the victims the foreign ministry spokesman had said western media were engaging in suspicious propaganda ahead of the aviation authority here had said that it was scientifically impossible and a logical that a missile had brought down the airplane he also went on to say that there were

these were false rumors a missile had brought down the airplane and they said that they were looking at the black boxes so after days of denials the government is finally acknowledging this and the government has been receiving some increased support lately after the assassination of general cos and so the money this could change after today's news and this internally and it's also embarrassing for iran internationally because they have been denying this they've been accusing western governments of lying engaging in psychological warfare and that they're having to admit this but there's still many questions that remain unanswered why did iran not close down the airspace why would the flights not grounded just hours after iran had struck u.s. bases. in iraq there was a possibility of u.s. retaliation why was this space not closed thank you for that big line for us in tehran now canada's prime minister justin trudeau has released

a statement following iran said mission that it accidentally shot down the plane just in to say is awful this remains closure accountability transparency and justice for the families and loved ones of the victims this is a tragedy national tragedy and all canadians are mourning together we'll continue working with our partners around the world to ensure a complete and thorough investigation and the canadian government expects full corporation from iranian authorities let's bring in rob reynolds in washington d.c. now rob again the rain ians admitting responsibility but also saying this is a result of us adventurism to what's the reaction from this so far. that's right that was a statement on twitter by the iranian foreign minister folly. said that the shooting down of the plane was a result of human error in a crisis period that was sparked by u.s.

intervention or adventurism excuse me there has been no response on this side of the atlantic other than prime minister trudeau's statement which you read a moment ago we reached out to all the relevant authorities in the u.s. president from has not tweeted about this but i think that when the lights come back on in washington and the sun comes up president trump will be pushing back hard against that insinuation by the iranian authorities that the u.s. is in some way culpable for the shooting down of the aircraft i think that also president trump will and his authorities and his officials will probably point to the long cover up of the. true cause of the deaths of all those people aboard that aircraft as i just pointed out and went through all of the steps that the iranian

authorities took to try to shift blame from them and i think that since president trump has already said some days ago that it looks as if this was a an error by someone in the iranian armed forces there will be an element of i told you so as well right and what action do you think go what consequences for iran to this admission we've already had u.s. sanctions more u.s. sanctions on iran after they launch missiles at those u.s. bases in iraq can we expect more u.s. actions against iran. that's right there were new and new sanctions announced today against 8 senior officials in iran as well as some segments of the iranian industrial base it is hard to really imagine how much more the united states can do in terms of sanctions they're already pretty tight i think this

will make it easier perhaps for president trump to point to this shooting down in this cover up and rally other allies around the globe to confront tehran and to take the u.s. line more seriously. in terms of what the iranians might have to do to compensate there's some history for this as a matter of fact oddly enough it was a ukrainian missile that struck a russian airliner in 2001 this was during a period when the ukrainians were holding some military exercises above the black sea and one of their missiles went a raw and struck a siberian airliners airline plane killing 78 people in that case the ukrainians wound up paying $15000000.00 to the survivors and family members of

those who were killed thank you very much for that rob reynolds same in washington d.c. for us. now on to other world news in 3 days of mourning have begun in oman after the death of its leader sultan qaboos spin saeed sayit these are live pictures right now from muscat of the funeral procession for sultan qaboos his funeral will start from by its aardvark royal palace to the grand mosque in muscat and to be buried in the royal cemetery in bush air amid the middle east says long is swirling more knock died after a long illness a 79 year old has been credited with modernizing the gulf country and mediating between rivals in a volatile region rob matheson looks back at his life. it was an only son born in 1942 a life of royal privilege and to a father he would overthrow 30 years later sort unco bourse was educated in oman

and then at a private school in the u.k. before graduating from sandhurst military academy and serving in the british army for several months on his return to a man in 1966 his determination to modernize his country is said to have been ignored by his father. 4 years later backed by the british sultan qaboos seize the throne he was immediately plunged into his 1st crisis an uprising by communists in though far in the south of a man who wanted independence it took a further 6 years before the fighting ended with the man being supported by forces from britain jordan and iran. are man's links with iran as well as its foreign policy of maintaining good relations with other neighboring countries have made it one of the main negotiators in the gulf that flexible foreign policy has been controversial in october 2800 sort on caboose met israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu in the omani capital muscat the meeting dismayed critics who

said arab states should not be hosting israeli leaders until peace was established between israel and the palestinians a man's foreign minister said his country was simply facilitating efforts towards negotiations. so it had rarely been seen in public since he went through lengthy medical treatment in germany in 2015 he was unmarried and had neither children nor siblings and he did not publicly name a successor. also time cabooses successor were sought in just a short time ago in amman high found bin taric outside seen here in the front row of mourners was chosen to replace the longtime leader he was sultan kaposi's cousin and the country's heritage and culture minister with me now is my job's wherry director of the gulf studies center at qatar university thank you for being with us much of the challenge was that sultan qaboos of course didn't have an heir apparent but a successor has been named fairly quickly everything seems to be happening in

a very orderly manner it was it was very smooth political transition in a matter of 5 hours for. announce the of town called was around 839 the announce his successor that was a very fast and smooth political transition this i think this reflects 2 things one is the procedure itself which basically highlighted by the constitution article 5 and 6 and number 2 the willingness of a man to use and the leadership of a man to move into the country the country quickly safe and secure right what do we know abbas accountable says success on haifa and bin taric outside his cousin how close was he to the sultan and do we expect continuity we know that he was in voice a certain couples you know he was a minister of culture for nearly 18 years we know also that he was in charge of he

was also a 4 year for some years on foreign affairs ministry but the most important actually to me the most important position he has is actually leading the team who put together the recent document about a man a man of vision 20 fourth's which i think that was interesting to see that the person who was leading that team putting that vision to him and rather 20 years he's actually leading a man and i think. he's coming from a business and the economy a circle basically it's music largely to from oxford university so i think all of this tells us one important fact is not that far away from that sometimes it goes for some less prayed praises being very forward thinking do we expect this new leader then to continue with as far as a man is concerned domestically of course i would expect to maintain the most mystically what was so drunk i was started maintain was been

a start list already and improving it i expect that they will continue of their role of work mediation and i expect more focus on economy because they're the most important or the core of the new money vision 2040 is the diversification of the economy right let's talk about the regional implications now of this death sort on couple says as we heard in rob rob math and report we felt far beyond its borders he was a crucial discreet negotiator between various countries in this region and even beyond it between iran and the united states for instance how do you expect his successor. to take on this role will be will he be as well respected as this all tied and also i think it'll be interesting to see who attends his funeral and ask that's absolutely important and that's absolutely important to see who will be attending or who will be actually coming to him and to. join their

monies and show the basically that crucial moment with women is i think i do see any major change to be honest i think i think even with all with the with with this change in a man which expected you know individuals as you say individuals affected procedures always but i don't think so with this legacy there will be a major change i expect the emmanuel remediation will continue because that has interest for a man in this for others i think that's helps him on a look to maintain its role and there are those who say my. that the death of small town couples is a big deal now or today then let's say if it had happened a year ago because of the current way chancellor says it's a crucial you know we know what you see you see what's happening with iran you see what's our billing when it comes to yemen there are you know this is this is a very. politically don't know meet with also it's a very critical time for the go over in the region i think you know his death may

affect with him with this smooth political transition i would expect this impact will be on the region my job thank you very much for being with us my job so larry from qatar university now looking at the legacy of sultan couple cellmate leader of hamas our sultan qaboos was also very involved in trying to end the war in yemen that speak to our correspondent in sana'a tom some of it how is sultan couples being remembered in yemen. yes he will always be remembered as a person who was. taken over as a no 2 to bring peace to yemen especially then now we have heard the. top negotiator of the host these have expressed has expressed his condolences to the. royal family of saeed and also to the omani people in. in the knowledge them and through the forces that have been exerted by time

couples inside especially to bring to negotiating table the warring sides in yemen and closing the whole of these and the internationally recognized government and this also. he will always be remembered for for for the also for for how he peacefully resolve resolve the settlement on the disagreements between yemen and oman over the borders between the both countries with the former regime. also to be rumor remembered for how he with his policy of friends who are all and also an enemy to none of that has also enabled this country to flora she can actually there's such. a system retired has been also mired by yemenis here in yemen which has a border region with with no man would be success of.

been side will also according to observers will have the difficulties and challenges ahead of him because of the growing developments in the in yemen in particular longside the border with between between online and yemen especially with the saudi plans to people their way to install its oil pipeline to. see such. always been the warrior the concern all the. no where many hold the. policy and also so it's true it would be full of his successor ok thank you very much for that mohammed a lot todd live for us in santa. you're

watching al-jazeera live from doha more now on our top story any rinds admission that it shot down the ukrainian airliner which killed all 176 people on board a few days ago let's bring in hamad mousavi was a professor at the university of tehran he is live from the iranian capital thank you very much for being with us initially when you know there were reports that iran may have been responsible for bringing down this plane the iranian government described it as lies and western propaganda not the meeting being at fault which is highly unusual for the iranian government just how embarrassing a u. turn is this for them. i think it's hugely embarrassing i mean a lot of uranium zork up today to the news that the un an army was responsible for the downing of the passenger airline i think a lot of the reigning ins are now upset or sad and even perhaps angry. the

iranian army has said that the investigation took this long in the investigation is ongoing nevertheless i think had they come out and said made this public earlier it would have been better in terms of the media war between iran and the united states announcing it so late essentially has given the americans a a card to play against iran in the into war again for the international public opinion and i think even internally in iran this is going to have severe consequences i was going to ask you about that in turn me 1st what what form do you expect domestically. it's too early to tell but i think a lot of people are upset they are angry. the reigning government as well as the iranian army has said that this was an accident and it was the result of human error nevertheless i think a lot of uranium expect

a full investigation and perhaps the problem prosecution of those responsible for this. grave error this is not something but do you any anybody. else do you expect any political fallout. i think it's inevitable because when one awesome so they money was assassinated by the americans there was extreme public support among all uranium from different political factions in groups in support of the government in support of us and soleimani essentially this mistake is going might reverse that to some extent in the reason for that is even though the situation was very tense i mean the downing of the airliner took place several hours after iran attacked the aino aside in american air base but i think the perhaps correct move would have been to

just suspend all passenger any rein in air space into this had been solved i mean did the situation between iran and the u.s. had been resolved allowing passenger airlines to fly i mean has essentially led to this very very grave error in this tragic accident there are a lot of questions as to why iran didn't close its a space at a time of such tensions between them and the united states thank you very much for speaking to us hamad mousavi from the university of tehran we appreciate your time . our let's turn our attention now to other world news and the polls are due to close shortly in taiwan's president chen parliamentary elections the vote is seen as a choice between moving closer to china continuing to resist beijing's push for green if occasion opinion poll suggests current president sighing when who is pro independence will win a 2nd scott heiler is in taipei for

a sore spot the polls are closing in about an hour or so what's the turn up been like. well the turnout here at this polling center where the elementary school in downtown taipei it has been pretty good kind of traditionally you see a spike in the morning right when the polls open and we did see that and then toward the afternoon you know we're only about a half hour before the polls close now we saw a little bit more of a spike here but also across taiwan that's being reported by local media so we have seen that what appears to be a heavy turnout this is it anticipated that there was going to be a heavy turnout today because of the weight that this election holds as you mentioned you know it's really kind of widely viewed as a referendum on the relationship moving forward with between taiwan and china so a lot of importance put on this beyond electing a president beyond electing the next parliament so a lot of people are expected to turn out 4 years ago and sign when was elected the turnout was 66 percent we're expected to see north of 70 percent today because of

yes the the importance of this election at all also a lot of young voters now of age coming out to cast their ballots today i imagine beijing is watching this election very closely what consequences could this vote have. very very closely what we're probably going to see you know if sun wing and her government stays in power what we'll probably see is nothing dramatic right away you know we she she has felt the pressure of beijing there has been you know lack of communication too in beijing and heard ministration that will obviously continue if if the ruling party stays in power we'll probably see continued kind of down of diplomatic allies with taiwan that's something that beijing has been doing pretty steadily over the last year or so so probably see that action going on and we might even see what they've been doing the army from china the navy from china kind of ramping up their kind of intimidation if you will but we're not expecting there to be something you know sunday morning if she does

stay in power that there's going to be a dramatic shift in the posture that china has toward taiwan obviously behind the scenes they'll be a lot of action going on but we're not going to probably see anything physical straightaway or even maybe statements coming out of beijing also what i think to underline that and depending on what will impact i should say the reaction from beijing is just how big if simon and her party win just how big that victory is if it's overwhelming you might see something maybe a little bit more from beijing if it's close you might see them react to say you know the people have chosen but you know there are a lot of people who who stood out against them so it's going to be very interesting and probably very closely tied to the results of how people cast their ballots here in taiwan on saturday but now we expect you know again the polls will close in about a half hour's time we expect maybe in about 2 hours to 3 hours we'll start to get to some results they're going to start counting the ballots straightaway we're at this elementary school so they'll start as soon as the doors closed they'll start

counting straight away so we'll probably see some early numbers coming out that say 3 hours from now and then we'll hear from the candidates and of course we'll be talking to you when those numbers tied to come in scott hi there my friends same taipei. i've heard it is being delivered in guinea bissau in the trial of 12 people charged with smuggling 2 tons of cocaine last year the biggest hole in the history of the country the case has highlighted how the tiny west african nation has become an international hub for drug trafficking algis there is nicolas had joined an untimely conics operation at the airport in the capital. acting on a tip off from brazil's anti narcotics officers going to be so as police believe constant jurors on board this flight from lisbon are smuggling cocaine detectives believe or com and his team are looking for 3 individuals one of them is this man wearing a yellow jersey beginning in national from his son who lives in the brazilian city of south polar he doesn't know it yet but he's about to be pulled aside for

questioning. where you coming from are you carrying anything illicit drugs who are you visiting here where you staying detective come is already building his case because who's going to sell these are the folks that i've seen my friends the people who smuggle drugs are often vulnerable and from paul backgrounds but they're not stupid they know it's illegal and there are consequences to their actions but only the amount of food and as you take sarah lives in sao paulo working in maintenance and earning $256.00 a month he says he's here to visit his family but the police believes he's hiding something so they ousted check his luggage. this is where most seizures take place at the airport but it's often over small quantities just a few grams of cocaine could lead the person that's being stopped 10 to 15 years in prison but most cases go unprosecuted. the united states drugs in foresman agency says guinea bissau is turning into what it calls

a narco state the qs is latin american drug traffickers of bribing state officials to let cocaine destined to europe transit through the country and into the hell region where armed groups use the drugs to fund their fighting $75000000.00 worth of cocaine was seized last year some of it hidden in cat food the fast this is a war it's a threat to our country and to the region the traffickers a well organized and well financed it's difficult to fight them as investigators go through take serra's bag a bundle of drugs is found after urine test take separate admits to having swallowed 18 packets of drugs $5000.00 worth of cocaine lays in his stomach not the slightest doubt will be for the i'm not skeared i'm doing this for my family i'll be freed. taken into detention at the police station take sarah stripped and searched now under arrest he risks decades in prison yet he seems calm

he says this is not his 1st offense has been set free before. the powerful drug cartels are looking after him because hawk al jazeera the south. again i'm fully back to go with the headlines on al-jazeera after days of denials iran has admitted its military shot down a ukrainian passenger plane killing all 176 people on board present hasan rouhani says it was an unforgivable mistake that iran deeply requests a sunbathe has more from tehran but now the iranians are waking up today government admitting that it was in fact in the reunion missile that brought the airplane down and the general staff of the military has said that it was a mistake it was human error that the plane had taken a turn toward the sensitive revolutionary guard site and missiles were fired by

mistake have apologized and they said the condolences of the families of the victims oman has begun 3 days of mourning after the death of its leader sultan qaboos spin side outside the 79 year old died after a long illness he was credited with modernizing the gulf country and mediating between rivals in a volatile region cabooses cousin hyphen bin taricco outside has been sworn in as the country's new leader the late sultan qaboos had no children and never publicly named a successor so time couples was involved in trying to end the war in yemen mohammed our tom has more from the capital sanaa. you will always be remembered as a person who was. taken over as the no 2 to bring peace to yemen especially the now we have heard the the top negotiator of the host these have

expressed has expressed his condolences to the. royal family. also to the omani people. in the knowledge them and through the forces that have been exerted by. the side especially to bring to negotiating table the worrying sides in yemen including the hoa fees and the internationally recognized government and the polls are about to close in taiwan's presidential and parliamentary elections voters are choosing between moving closer to china or continuing to resist beijing's push for being if acacia an opinion poll suggests the current pro independence president sighing when well when a 2nd term he wraps it with headlines on al jazeera more now website al jazeera dot com of course coming up next inside story we know what's happening in our region we know how to get to places that others and i was just blown here guys by the police

on purpose the fires are still ongoing. by. the weaving you tell the story is what can make a difference. what calls to ukrainian plane to crash in tehran iran rejects allegations it mistakenly shot it down but ukraine and western countries are pushing for evidence so will the truth behind this crash be revealed and could that spill into a wider political conflict this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program i'm martin dennis now they have been claims counterclaims and outright denials the head of iran's civil aviation body insists

the ukrainian airliner that crashed near tehran this week wasn't shot down by uranium missile but canada says it has intelligence.