this used to doubling in use while i'm from berlin the commander of iran's revolutionary guard has accepted full responsibility for the shooting down of a ukrainian passenger plane 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. plus people from iran to europe and canada grief for those who were killed in that crash the families and friends who lost loved ones united we'll hear

more about the victims and the international community is mourning their loss. german chancellor angela merkel it's really russian president vladimir putin in moscow the 2 leaders have several significant points of just fuse but can they find common ground on the middle east amid rising tensions in the region. welcome to the program the commander of iran's revolutionary god is accepted full responsibility for the downing of a passenger jet on wednesday iran says the firing of a missile at the plane was a mistake blaming human error after the plane flew near a sensitive military site 176 people were killed in the crash tehran had previously denied claims from the u.s. and canada that it was responsible. an explosion in the sky this

mobile phone footage was one factor that led western countries to suspect in the reunion missile attack on the ukrainian passenger plane finally after days of vehement denial iran's military admitted it's 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. when i became 'd certain that this incident had happened i really wished death for myself. i wished i had died or 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 the technical

fault had been to blame for the crash even after u.s. canadian and british intelligence concluded that the surface to air missile had caused the tragedy. 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. people that were on the plane they were young they were academics they were engineers as his compatriots mourned 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 there good to see you are iran's revolutionary guards have now taken responsibility for this crash is there going to be any fallout over these.

well it was a very strong or the chris conference. interview says artist this there was really all christendom to the extent of all the responsibility for the tragic incident he apologize to the i r g c obey all the decisions made by the coffers of the shells or the incident there are already been reports of resignation but i heard that they have declined are ready to resign. or now it is rejected by high ranking officials. as i understand and you falsely tweeted supreme leader ronnie wasn't made aware of the cause of the crash until friday that was 2 days after did officials keep him in the dock well the i r g c commander said on wednesday morning shortly after the tragic incident

he informed the contras officials but he did not specify which of the shows have. informed of all and he lay there said that the contras general stuff of armed forces is current and the. people who knew about it decided not to declare the issue until further investigation is conducted on the incident so i have heard that the president of this did not know about it until friday and the leader was also informed on the same day according to the report boy. you see if you hear this farce news agency no more can be said for out reza you just mentioned the investigation how will all of this in a think that's investigation the international investigation taking place at the moment. well of course now there are things we're 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. which is of course not true because it was so. good to talk to journalists reza has 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 good to see you david what's been the reaction in kiev today on iran admitting that it did shoot down the plane albeit 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 investigation would continue on 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 krane doing if there is demands that you outlined and not met. well we'll see that we now have this admission yesterday we heard from the foreign minister a strike oh 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's professor of a 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 that off on a remarkable. but a military how 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 . strategic surprise 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. . you know normally if you're going to have a conflict of some sort you're going to try to supply problems. that the country that you're going to overfly they would normally issue some sort of alert these would be carrying out flight crew so that you can then brief it's important to note that when an aircraft was deployed from this point to that point before the crews go to work they have to report in and work out how they're going to fly we're going to fly from this point to that point and over this country so if there's a conflict taking place for instance when there was the gulf war. taken place previously airlines made sure that they didn't over fly these areas where you know

there's going to be trouble so there fly around it and they would need to plan this by carrying extra fuel so again it seems really unusual. spice wasn't closed if they were anticipating such major problems all right steven wright professor of aircraft systems finland's temple university thank you very much professor well germany's chancellor angela merkel is in moscow today for talks with russian president vladimir putin the 2 leaders are expected to discuss the heightened tensions in the middle east following the recent u.s. iran conflate the ongoing factional war in libya is also high on the agenda with germany concerned that libya could become a 2nd syria the 2 leaders met last month in paris to push for a cease fire in war torn eastern ukraine as well. well let's take a look now at how in the region how's the. blood in your food and friends to all in the middle east from the leaders of iran and turkey to israel and

syria putin 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 its live province the last remaining rebel strongholds russia's military support has helped to 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. 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 . inconsistently 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 their commitments and that is exactly what russia intends to do. 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. we've got some analysis on merkel's visit to russia let's bring in d.-w. is emily sherman in moscow and here in the studio is our political correspondent thomas thomas we'll start with you before these talks today merkel 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 these talks today with persian in short merkel probably wants some clarity as to what role russia could play to try and deescalate tensions in the region germany is aware that russia plays a very important role when it comes to iran when it comes to syria when it comes to libya and those are all issues that are going to be discussed today or they're probably already being discussed between the russian leader on the german leader and it's important to stress that these 2 leaders have met on many many occasions

in the past they've been in power for a very long time in russia and in germany they know each other very well they speak the language of each other's countries or speaks russian and that even putting speak german they know each other they said very well and as such i think that explains why germany in particular not for example another country another lido of another european country went to moscow to try and find out exactly how russia as a very influential player in the middle east could try and help to deescalate tensions and so 2 leaders with a very long established working relationship and really will go to your merkel is really off to putin's influence here how is this being viewed in the kremlin. well that absolutely of plays into what the kremlin wants the mere putin has taken care. of very much present himself as a key player in the middle east as a mediator in middle east.