Tehran must 'learn lessons' from Ukraine plane disaster that killed 176 people: Russia

Moscow: Iran, which admitted on Saturday that it accidentally shot down a Ukrainian airliner killing 176 people, must "learn lessons" from the disaster, the chairman of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee said.

"If decryption of the black boxes and the work of the investigation do not prove that the Iranian army did this intentionally, and there are no logical reasons for this, the incident must be closed."

"Hoping that lessons will be learned and action taken by all parties," said Konstantin Kosachev, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

The Ukraine International Airlines plane came down on Wednesday shortly after Iran launched missiles at bases hosting American forces in Iraq in response to the killing of Qassem Soleimani, one of Iran's top generals, in a US drone strike.

The admission came a day after Iran's civil aviation chief denied claims that the plane had been shot down, as international pressure mounted on Tehran to conduct a credible investigation after several Western governments blamed a missile strike.