this is d w news live from berlin the commander of iran's revolutionary guard has accepted full responsibility for the shooting down of a ukrainian passenger plane and iran says the aircraft was brought down by accident last wednesday after it flew near a sensitive military site all 176 people on board were killed we'll have the latest from tehran. class people from iran to europe and canada green for those who were killed in that crash families and friends who lost loved ones uniting their shock

will hear more about the victims and their communities mourning their loss. plus as tensions are rising in germany and russia look for common ground german chancellor angela merkel meets with russian president vladimir putin to bridge greater diplomacy to the translators have several significant points of dispute can they align their views on the middle east. i'm tired read welcome to the program the commander of iran's revolutionary guard has accepted full responsibility for the downing of a ukrainian passenger jet on wednesday iran says the firing of the missile at the plane was a mistake blaming human error after the plane flew s. it flew near a sensitive military site 176 people were killed in the crash tehran had previously denied claims from. u.s.

and canada that was responsible. an explosion in the sky this mobile phone footage was one factor that led western countries to suspect an iranian missile attack on the ukrainian passenger plane finally after days of vehement denial iran's military admitted his guilt with armed forces on the highest level of alert the ukrainian international airlines flight had appeared to fly like a hostile target near a sensitive military site. you know. when i became certain that this incident had happened i really wished death for myself. i wished i had died and not seen such an incident politicians followed human error had caused the missile to be fired iran's foreign minister tweeted meanwhile the country's president hassan rouhani called the attack

a disastrous mistake they're both face comes after iran maintained that's a technical fault had been to blame for the crash even after u.s. canadian and british intelligence concluded that a surface to air missile had caused the tragedy. of. canada in particular has paid a high price for the recent saber rattling between iran and the u.s. this vigil in toronto was $1.00 of dozens across the country that paid tribute to the $57.00 canadian citizens many of them university students and researchers who were among the dead. these people that were on the plane they were young they were academics they were engineers i was his compadres mourns canadian prime minister just introduced called for justice for the families of the victims and said he expects the full cooperation of iran. let's cross now to tehran and speak to journalists reza ha stay there good to see you in iran's revolutionary guards have

now taken responsibility for this crash is there going to be any fallout over these well it was a restraint or the 1st call for us. he says are. there or it was really all christendom to the extent of all the responsibility or the tragic incident he apologize. or do you see. all the decisions made by the coffers of the show over the incident there already been reports of resignation but i heard that. the client are ready to resign. or now it is rejected by high ranking officials as i understand and you've also tweeted supreme leader rouhani wasn't made aware of the cause of the crash until friday that was 2 days off did officials keep him in the dock. well the g.c.

commander said on wednesday morning shortly after the tragic incident he inform congress officials but he did not specify which of the shows have. informed of and he lay there said that the contras general stuff of armed forces. the people who knew about it decided not to declare the issue until further investigation was conducted on the incident so i have heard that the president of this don't know about it until friday and a leader was also informed on the same day according to reports boy i heard you see if you hear this farce news agency but no more can be said for our reza you just mentioned the investigation how will all of this in effect that's investigation the international investigation taking place at the moment well of course now

everything's clear there would be no more 'd or to do on the black box. list they are going to miss a good bill or it was intentional they get on like what they were officially claim which is of course not true because it was intentional good to talk to journalists reza how stay in tehran thank you for more on this this let's cross to kiev ukraine now and speak to david stern who's the w.'s correspondent there could just see david what's been the reaction in kiev today on iran admitting that it did shoot down the plane will be it's a mistake it says. well yes it's a very sudden turn of events just yesterday the ukrainians were sounding a note of caution saying that they would look into everything before they reached

any conclusions they didn't want to draw jump to any conclusions but now obviously there is a submission from the iranians and the ukrainians have issued their own reactions most prominently the president selenski who issued statements in english and in ukrainian he said that this morning brings the truth there was a sad day though and that the ukrainians were insisting on a full admission of guilt as well as bring those responsible to justice return of the bodies paying of compensation and if issuing an official apology and he's also said that the work the investigation would continue many hope that it would be without any without any obstacles we've also heard from the head of ukrainian international airlines who held a news conference earlier and he raised his own questions and indeed there are a lot of questions still why did the airspace was not was not closed off he said that they followed everything that was demanded of them obviously this did not make

a difference and so in general i would say among ukrainians there is a sense that this is obviously a move forward but there are still many questions just quickly if you could david what can you crane doing if those demands that you outlined and not met. who will see that so we now have this admission yesterday we heard from the foreign minister . he said that they would take legal action now this is before the admission obviously but he was speaking about working with ukraine's allies and partners and he said that it possibly could be taken to the united nations if necessary mentioning also the shooting down of m.h. 17 malaysian airlines back in 2014 over ukrainian territory which ukrainians are also waiting for justice on that one as well our correspondent david stern in kiev thank you david well let's cross now to finland and speak to steven wright who is

professor of cross systems at temple university there good to talk to you professor can you explain why the ukrainian passenger why this plane that had a 9 flight path could be confused with a hostile target. actually. the the military should not obviously there i'm personally location i'm to think the off on a remarkable is that the military are located so close to a very large commercial apple. almost particularly confusing for myself is iran itself geographically it is a really big city that surrounded by mountains the airport is located away from the hills because planes don't are flying. in that sort of general location so they're full why do you put a missile battery so close to an international apple it's not very clear for the by

. the strategic purpose of especially as it civilian and linus taking off and landing. what about the airport why wasn't the airport closed is that something dutch would or should normally happen in a situation of the heightened tensions that we're seeing between iran and the u.s. . yet no merely if your going to have a conflict of some soul and you're going to trying to supply problems that a the the country that you kind to overfly they would normally issue some sort of a love these would be cowering out to flight crew so i was a you can them brief it's important to note that when an ak or off what's to ply from this point to that point before the cruise garda work they have to reports in and work out how they're going to fly we're going to flock from this point to that point and i over this contrary so if there's a conflict taking place for instance went there was the gulf war the of taker place

previously add lines might shill that they didn't out of a fly these areas where you know that that is going to be trouble so they're fly round it and they would need to plan in this what carrying extra few oh so again it seems really unusual the yeah spice wasn't closed if they were anticipating such my your problems or i'd stephen ride professor all of aircraft systems that finland stumpy university thank you very much professor well germany's chancellor angela merkel is in moscow if a talks meade russia's plays it president vladimir putin the 2 leaders are expected to discuss heighten tensions in the middle east following the rescind us you ron conflate the ongoing factional war in libya is also a high on the agenda we've journey concerned that libya could become a 2nd syria the 2 leaders met last month in paris to push for a cease fire in water own eastern ukraine let's take

a look now at how putin's role in the range and has evolved bloody near future and a friend still in the middle east from the leaders of iran and turkey to israel and syria is presenting himself as a mediator who can be relied on since russia began its military campaign in syria in 2015 the country has become an important player in the region russia joined forces with iran to back the syrian government providing air support. most recently russia and syria have stepped up their bombing campaign in the province the last remaining rebel stronghold russia's military support has helped prop up syria's president bashar al assad and guaranteed moscow an important geopolitical foothold in the middle east as the us pulls its troops out of syria russia has remained.

forces and our military equipment have demonstrated the growing power of the russian army and navy and the high combat capability of its forces. russia also condemned the us assassination of the reigning in general. this week as reckless and has repeatedly back to iran and its ongoing confrontation with the us . and consistently criticizes american policy in the middle east and has tried to present russia as a more reliable partner after u.s. president trump decided to pull out of the iran nuclear deal in 2018 the russian leader has repeatedly said his country would continue to support the agreement. well games really believe that the only sensible decision is for all the participants in the iran nuclear deal to honor the commitments and that is exactly what russia intends to do meet in the blueprint. this week which in called for a cease fire in libya as well fighting there has escalated in recent months and

although russia has refused to officially side with one of the warring parties according to media reports russian mercenaries have been on the ground for months supporting general. against the un backed libyan government as u.s. influence in the middle east wanes russia is working hard to fill the void. well for more analysis on merkel's visit to russia let's bring in political correspondent thomas very hi thomas before the meeting today mechelle spokesman said russia was an important actor on the world stage very praising words indispensable in solving political conflicts what is it that merkel wants from prison and this visit that statement that you just read shows what germany believes russia can do in such a situation then to stand that russia has been trying to get a stronger foothold in the middle east that russia has been trying to increase its influence in the region and that such it has a very good contacts at least better contacts and those of germany has to some of

the key countries in the middle east we're talking about syria for example we saw in our report something about that that we're talking about turkey we're talking about iran and as such what germany specifically wants to hear from that emir putin is what he can do to try and help deescalate the situation in the middle east how he can help reduce tensions we know already the tensions are extremely high and germany sees that it can play a role trying to talk to a country russia where it has strong relationships even though in many cases that do not see eye to eye on those strong relationship between germany and russia have to do with the fact that i'm going to be imported know each other very well they've both been in power for a very long time they both know each other's countries very well so i'm dramatical speaks russian that imported speaks german so as such they have had of a very long relationship even though as i say and.