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Iran Admits to Unintentionally Shooting Down Ukrainian Plane; U.S. Announces New Sanctions against Iran; NSW South Coast Welcomes Back Tourists after Bushfire Shutdown; Taiwan Votes. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired January 11, 2020 - 03:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Breaking news out of Iran this hour. Iran now admitting it shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane by mistake.

Welcome to viewers. I am George Howell.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): I am Natalie Allen. Thanks for being with us.

Iran initially denied shooting the plane down but leaders there now say a missile fired by mistake brought down that Ukrainian passenger jet, killing all 176 people on board.

HOWELL: The United States, Canada and others already concluded an Iranian missile was responsible. It happened hours after Iran launched missiles at U.S. military bases in Iraq.

We warn you before you see this, it is graphic and you may find it disturbing. Here is the video that was shot from a surveillance camera.

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HOWELL (voice-over): You can see the bright light from the fire, then everything goes white as the plane hits the ground and explodes. Hundreds of pieces of debris of the plane throughout the area.

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ALLEN: That is telling video right there.

CNN is covering this major development with our teams throughout the region and beyond. Fred Pleitgen is live this hour in Tehran with more on what the Iranian government is now saying. Scott McLean is in Kiev where There are calls for justice in the aftermath of the tragedy. And Ben Wedeman is in Beirut with the new sanctions Iran faces from the United States.

First to Fred in Tehran.

Fred, Iran finally revealed the truth about what happened.

What do you make of it?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they certainly have. It is a pretty full admission coming from the Iranians. What is significant is that it comes from the Iranian military itself.

They put out a statement today saying, yes, they did by accident shoot down the airliner and provided a lot of detail to go along with it, which is remarkable. Normally the Iranian military and Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps are secretive organizations that do not give much information about what they do militarily.

They say in the aftermath of the Iranian strike on installations in Iraq that housed U.S. troops they were in a heightened state of alert because the U.S. said they would strike back if Iran hits United States assets inside Iraq.

They said that they were seeing a lot of activity on radars and U.S. planes near Iran's borders, near what they call sensitive military installations.

As far as the Ukrainian airliner is concerned, they say after it took off it made a turn towards the north and then was getting close to sensitive military installations of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

They said the plane was at an altitude and pitch where they perceived it to be a threat and then mistakenly shot it down. They said it was human error, as they put it.

Iranians are saying they are going to get to the bottom of what happened and hold those behind shooting it down accountable and going through the decision-making hierarchy of all of this and reform all their processes to ensure that something like this will never happen again.

Now as you can imagine, Tehran and the Iranian nation were taken aback by the news. It is causing a great stir here on the ground. You already had the foreign minister and the president of the country coming out to issue a statement.

The foreign minister apologizing to the Iranian people and other nations that had citizens on board.

One of the things, Natalie, is that a lot of the folks from Canada and European nations were dual Iranian nationals. There were a lot of Iranians killed on that plane as far as Iran is concerned, well over 140 people was the count they gave.

You had the president Hassan Rouhani come out calling all of this an unjustifiable mistake. Strong language that was aimed at Iran's security apparatus and calling for reforms to make sure this does not happen again. Iran's judiciary and president said the people that were responsible

for shooting down the airline in error will be held accountable -- Natalie.

ALLEN: All right. Javad Zarif, the foreign minister, kind of pointed the finger at the U.S. for its, quote, "adventurism."

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ALLEN: That is another angle we will be looking at. Fred, thanks.

Here is more from the region.

HOWELL: Both sides really looking to play the blame game in this. Now live to Kiev.

Scott, there are so many questions about the fate of the plane, now a 180 from Iran, admitting it was shot down by mistake.

Any new reaction from families and officials that really have been caught in the middle of all of this?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You are absolutely right, George. There are competing theories over the last two days from the U.S., U.K. and Canada, saying it was definitely shot down. Iran previously strongly denied those claims, calling them fraudulent and a big lie.

And Ukraine caught in the middle, asking everyone to wait to see what the evidence showed. They had not even gotten access to the black box data yet.

This shouldn't come as a massive surprise to Ukrainian authorities. They told CNN the intelligence given to them was very solid. It also shouldn't come as a surprise to a lot of the family and the friends of the Ukrainian victims; 11 were of Ukrainian descent, nine belonged to the flight crew.

They said, yes, we are frustrated by the competing theories here. Given what they knew about the airline and the solid safety record and experienced pilots, the only thing that they could imagine and the only theory making sense to them was that this plane was shot down by a missile.

We have gotten a new statement from the Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky, saying this morning was not a good one but it brought the truth, a direct and terse statement, saying they will be insisting on a full admission of guilt and an apology through diplomatic channels.

They want payment and compensation and insist the 45 Ukrainian investigators on the ground get greater and immediate access to the crash site. This is in stark contrast to the more carefully chosen words we were hearing from the foreign minister who said, yes, they would look at compensation but they did not know at this stage yet.

And he said that yes, in any case like this investigators always want greater access to the site. Whether the concerns are justified, he said it is hard to tell. This is a different statement.

The Canadian prime minister saying he will work for transparency and justice. There are still open questions about why exactly the plane was allowed to take off in the first place. The airline said if they even had a hint there was danger they would not have allowed it to take off.

The Ukrainian foreign minister said the plane was in the right spot, in the corridor where it should have been safe. Other planes would have taken off. He said that there was no reason to believe that there was any type of danger.

But I still think there are a lot of open questions for the airline, given the tensions between Iran and the United States, the missile strikes in Iraq on U.S. targets, just a couple of hours before the plane went down.

It makes you wonder what exactly the calculus was on the part of this airline and others as well. Ukraine International Airlines will be holding a press conference three hours from now and you can bet that question will come up -- George, Natalie.

HOWELL: Scott, the key question here really comes down to the families, right. I mean we talk about the sides that have competing narratives and Iran, you know, denying and then finally admitting it was indeed behind this. But for these families who first got confirmation the plane crashed.

How difficult and challenging must it be for them in this mess?

MCLEAN: I got to speak with the wife of one of the pilots, who told me that it was her new M.O. in life to make sure that the legacy of her husband and the reputation of her husband was unstained.

She was really upset that there were initial thoughts that perhaps it could have been pilot error or some type of maintenance issue. In her mind, the only theory making sense was a missile attack or a terror attack on board.

She wants to make sure that the message is sent out loud and clear to the world that her husband did exactly what he was supposed to do. He was immensely experienced. All three of the pilots on board had 31,000 combined flight hours, the equivalent of flying three and a half years straight just on the Boeing 737 alone.

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MCLEAN: You know, you can imagine what these families are going through. This came so unexpectedly. He had two young kids, the case for many of the other victims here in Ukraine and in Canada and Iran as well.

Yes, this is good news for the families in that at least they have answers they have not had over the last couple of days, when the facts were hard to come by or the evidence has been hard to come by. So they are still having to bury their loved ones. They are still having to deal with really the unexpected tragedy.

HOWELL: At the least they need the facts. At the least they need the truth. Scott McLean, thank you for the reporting.

ALLEN: We have much more ahead here. One question we will be asking is why was the airplane flying, a commercial airliner, during a tense military situation?

We will get into that with our guests as Iran does admit it shot down the passenger plane by mistake. Our coverage from the Middle East is next.

HOWELL: Plus we are going to check out other news around the world. Australia, a slight reprieve, giving firefighters fighting a massive bush fire a break. Stand by.

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HOWELL: We are following breaking news out of Tehran. Iran now admitting it shot down a Ukrainian passenger flight on Wednesday, killing all 176 people on the flight. The president, Hassan Rouhani is vowing to prosecute those responsible, calling it a terrible mistake; however Iran's foreign minister also blaming a crisis caused by U.S. adventurism after the United States killed a top Iranian general.

Iran's military adds there was heightened sensitivity and the plane's flight path resembled hostile targeting.

ALLEN: Let's start there with our next guest, Greg Waldron, joining us live now from Singapore.

Thanks for coming on. About this mistake, Iran's military adding that there was a heightened sensitivity in Iran's defense center and the plane's flight path resembled hostile targeting.

Can you understand how they made the mistake?

GREG WALDRON, "FLIGHTGLOBAL": I am bewildered. It shows a lack of coordination between the Iranian military and Iranian civil aviation authorities. The accident happened close to the country's busiest airport. Commercial flights were still flying, they had a missile crew close to the international airport. In a sense, it is already a disaster waiting to happen.

ALLEN: Iran finally admitting that it did this and accidentally shot down the airliner.

Are you surprised they come clean about what happened?

WALDRON: No, I'm not. I think the evidence was mounting at them from day one. The Canadians said it was a missile attack. Others talked about it being a missile attack. When you look at the wreckage, it is hard to hide the evidence of a missile attack. There would have been telltale signs.

There was so much evidence mounting that they had no choice but to come clean about this.

ALLEN: Let's talk about why the plane was operating in this tense military climate. There had been planes taking off earlier and there was a 20-minute lag. And then this happened.

WALDRON: Unfortunately, you know, we have come to a situation where there is a great proliferation of air traffic around the world and a lot of the air traffic in countries where you have political tensions like this.

Then you will have the proliferation as well of the highly capable air defense systems like the SA-15, which downed this 737 and crews not very well trained on these systems. It is not really war. It is not really peace. And it mixes with these highly capable systems. You are going to see issues like this at times, like we saw back in 2014.

ALLEN: You mentioned the training of the folks manning the missiles.

Can you understand why they would confuse a commercial plane with a hostile military plane?

WALDRON: The excuse the government gave is that there were U.S. tensions, they were tired, jumpy, a bit tense. But they were basically on the flight line of the major international airport. They would have known there were commercial aircraft coming and going. This is their area of operations.

It bewilders me to think they could make a massive mistake like this, a ghastly error on the part of the Iranian military and it shows a lack of coordination between military and civilian communications in that country.

ALLEN: It is certainly a tragedy, 176 people have died. We appreciate your insights. Greg Waldron joining us live from Singapore.

HOWELL: Now back to Baghdad. Sam Kiley is there.

Iraq really caught in the middle here, Sam. Let's put it into context for our viewers in the U.S. and around the world, the fact the region had been on a hair trigger since the killing of Qasem Soleimani. The Iranian response followed and then the downing of the plane, the blame game. Iran denying it, then a 180.

Put that into context how it plays into the broader conflict.

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SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it is interesting that Iran moved with some speed to accept responsibility for shooting down the aircraft, trying to recover prestige from the tragic accident that has stained the reputation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps at a time when beforehand it looked like the Iranians had a very high degree of military prestige, generated by, successful from their perspective, missile strikes against U.S. bases in Iraq.

They did not kill anybody but showed technological capability, a capability to be very, very accurate targeting and the ability to get through a U.S. air defenses. That made them look good. This made them look terrible. They are clearly keen to admit responsibility and move past it.

In stark contrast, one has to say to the Russians or the rebels that have not acknowledged any responsibility for the Malaysian airline downed near Ukraine and the time it took for the United States to admit the incident in the Vincennes incident back in the early '80s, when a U.S. aircraft carrier downed an Iranian airliner.

So the Iranians moved quickly to admit responsibility in the face of overwhelming evidence from the ground and from the United States own imagery and effectively spy imagery, that was able to give the United States a degree or high degree of early warning on those missiles, fired against them from Iran.

It was the ability of the United States to look down on Iran and spot missile strikes that protected them from the missile strikes and indeed helped to reveal the culpability that the Iranians admitted.

It hasn't undermined the Iranian prestige among the Iranian-backed militias here in Iraq, who continue to demand the withdraw of U.S. forces and warning if they don't see signals from the U.S. that they will be withdrawing from Iraq, they will get violent.

HOWELL: Sam Kiley live in Baghdad. Thank you.

ALLEN: Another track we are following in the story, the Trump administration announced new economic sanctions against Iran following attacks on U.S. troops earlier in the week. For more Ben Wedeman joins me now live from Beirut with more on this.

Ben, the U.S. has been squeezing Iran in sanctions, now another round.

What do you expect?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Clearly, Natalie, the United States is continuing or resuming its policy of maximum pressure on Iran.

Now the latest is that eight senior security and military officials will be sanctioned, as well as the metallurgy production and textile sectors, showing the Trump administration does not have a policy towards Iran except for one thing and that is to make life difficult for the regime and for the people of Iran.

As long as it continues with the policy of maximum pressure, it will encounter maximum resistance from the Iranians. We are sort of back where we were pre- the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, where the United States is continuing to pressure the Iranian regime with no end game in sight, simply trying to make life as difficult as possible.

ALLEN: Yes, in the back of the mind regime change, which is a hard thing to achieve.

How will this, Ben, continue to deteriorate the relationship or lack thereof between U.S. and Iran?

WEDEMAN: It will continue to keep it in the freezer in this sense, with the possibility, of course, of it turning in to a hot war. Certainly this time around, war has been averted. But the basic building blocks for large-scale military confrontation are still there unless one of the sides decides to go back to some form of diplomacy instead of this endless sanctions on Iran.

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WEDEMAN: It should be stressed as we have seen time and time again, sanctions more often than not when imposed by the United States hurt ordinary people far more than the people in power, who can find their way around sanctions.

Let's keep in mind since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran that Iran has been under sanctions of one form or another and they have developed the ability to avoid the impact of sanctions and to get around sanctions. But we are talking about the people in power.

Ordinary people, however, are finding it ever more difficult. Therefore, as I said before, we are back to square one in terms of the miserable state of relations between Iran and the United States and the possibility that it could lead to a war -- Natalie.

ALLEN: All right. Ben Wedeman in Beirut. Thank you, Ben.

HOWELL: Still ahead, the coverage continues, as Iran now admits it shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane by mistake. CNN is live from Tehran on the other side of the break.

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HOWELL: Welcome back.

As we continue to follow the breaking news this hour, Iran now admitting it targeted and shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane unintentionally.

I am George Howell.

ALLEN: I am Natalie Allen. Thanks for staying with us.

The admission comes after Iran initially denied it had shot the plane down. CNN's Fred Pleitgen is live in Tehran.

Fred, first up, any surprise that Iran has revealed what happened?

PLEITGEN: Well, it is a bit of surprise they came up with this much information. With all of the things we heard from intelligence from the U.S. and Canadian side and the European side, saying they believe it was a missile that shot the plane down.

And you do have international investigators on the ground and Ukrainian investigators working with the Iranians. So it would have been impossible to keep it in the dark. They came out with a statement that divulged information, saying what happened and what led to the shooting down of the plane.

They said after the strike on the Iraqi military bases, housing U.S. troops, they expected an attack by the U.S. As far as the Ukrainian Airlines flight was concerned, they say the plane took off and that the proximity to the Revolutionary Guard Corps installation and the altitude and the pitch of the plane made it seem like a threat and that it was shot down by mistake.

There will be a military court and something the army is saying. They are at least taking a swipe at the U.S. in all of this I think the foreign minister said it was during a phase of adventurism by the U.S.

But the Iranians issued an apology to their own citizens. This is something that strikes at the heart of the Iranian nation and apologies to the families and the loved ones that perished on that flight.

ALLEN: Yes. Now they have been grieving Soleimani and now they are grieving their citizens that died here.

What about Mr. Rouhani and the statement that he made that you referenced to the people of Iran?

I think we might have the statement that we can pull up.

PLEITGEN: Yes. I think that is going to be a big deal that the Iranian public is going to demand. Officials are keeping an eye on social media in Iran. There are a lot of people demanding that accountability for what happened.

Part of what defines the Islamic Republic and its feelings toward the West is the shooting down of an Iranian airliner by the U.S. They still feel they were poorly treated by the United States.

To have their own military shooting down a plane with mostly Iranians on it certainly is something that is a gigantic deal here in this country, where a lot of people are hanging their heads. They are sad and grieving about this and there is a degree of anger. But the military is saying that this is something that happened by accident.

ALLEN: Certainly understand. Fred Pleitgen, thank you.

HOWELL: Following the bush fires in Australia, they have eased up for now. But the public outcry, the crowds keep growing. An update when we come back.

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ALLEN: Breaking news this hour as Iran now admits it targeted and shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane unintentionally. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a tweet he deeply regrets the disastrous mistake and vows to prosecute those responsible for downing the plane.

[03:40:00]

ALLEN: And moments ago we learned that black box recordings for the flight will be downloaded in France, according to the head of Iran's civil aviation organizations accident investigation board. The crash killed all 176 on board the flight bound for Kiev, Ukraine.

HOWELL: In Australia, officials reopened several beaches and tourist areas in New South Wales as bush fires in the region ease. Cooler temperatures and some rainfall are giving firefighters the chance to get the upper hand on some of the big fires. Firefighters in New South Wales are still fighting 136 of the fires and officials are warning citizens the risks are far from over.

The devastation is widespread. There is hardly anything left in several parts of Victoria. Anna Coren has the story of a man who survived the fires.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). Get behind me. Get Mallacoota.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) happened unfortunately.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) but it's by far the most hectic thing (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here in Mallacoota everyone that I knew of or if they didn't have a boat they were all evacuated down to the main wharf (ph), where the fire engines and everywhere there to take care of them and I guess the last resort was to jump into the water. Then people, locals, everyone I knew (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We decided to (INAUDIBLE). Now the fire front has come through.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything started to get black and then it went really black. Then it went red. It was quite scary, actually.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Getting the (INAUDIBLE) and the dogs out the front, supplies. I hope everyone is just (INAUDIBLE) the houses, man. Get into the water. It is (INAUDIBLE) chaos. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fires are a strange thing. It goes around some

people's houses and other peoples house's are just completely gone. It is crazy.

This is Stanley Avenue, which is the most worse affected area (INAUDIBLE). Some residents decided to stay. Chad here, he saved his family home and friend's home in the street with a bucket of water and those guys are crazy.

(INAUDIBLE) This is going to affect me directly and also everyone in town. It's probably one of the (INAUDIBLE) biggest employment in town (INAUDIBLE). Some of the people that actually lost their homes work here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have never seen anything like it. (INAUDIBLE).

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Will the town bounce back?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course we will. People get their houses rebuilt. We will move on. We will keep doing what we are doing right now until we have got road access. Yes. And I am really looking forward to going to see my missus and kid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: These fires are widespread and caused a great deal of pain.

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ALLEN: Next more on our breaking news coverage as Iran admits it shot down a passenger plane by mistake.

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HOWELL: Let's get you up to speed on the breaking news we are following. It is being called the disastrous mistake by the president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, who is apologizing for missiles that brought down a Ukrainian passenger plane.

The plane had 176 people on board that died. President Rouhani is vowing to prosecute the people responsible.

The crash happened Wednesday morning coming after Iran launched a barrage of missiles at military bases in Iraq, where U.S. troops are stationed.

Oman has a new ruler. Haitham bin Tariq Al Said has been named the new ruler. The Gulf nation declared three days of mourning to honor the Middle East's longest reigning monarch, who ruled Oman for nearly half a century. State media is lauding his balancing policy respected by the whole world.

The U.S. embassy is also paying tribute to the sultan, calling him one of the world's greatest leaders. He is believed to have been fighting cancer.

ALLEN: Now we turn to Taiwan, where polls closed in the election to choose a new president. This is a decision that will define the self- governing island's relationship with an increasingly powerful China. Kristie Lu Stout is following developments here from Hong Kong as the vote count gets underway.

How is it looking?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR: Counting is underway after millions of people across Taiwan took part in these pivotal elections. In the race for president, the clear favorite is the incumbent president, Tsai Ing-wen, the 63-year-old, who cast herself and her ruling DPP party as the defenders of the sovereign Taiwan.

She reminded voters of the values of democracy and freedom. Her main challenger is of the rival party there, a 62-year old, described populist mayor of the port city, criticizing the China's policies and negative impact on the economy in Taiwan and accused her of exploiting the protests in Hong Kong for political gain.

But the gains are real. We have seen a dramatic political turnaround. Initially she was polling low. But when the Hong Kong protest took place many in Taiwan viewed that, witnessed the struggle for democracy in the Chinese territory and it undermined their trust and faith in China.

Even though Tsai Ing-wen is the clear favorite for the race for presidency, it is a different story in the parliamentary race where her party, the DPP, is facing quite a significant challenge.

If she does not have control of parliament or the party does not, it would make it difficult for her in the event of a re-election to push forward China skeptic policies. That piece of legislation that was passed December 31st, that made it illegal to accept Chinese funding for political activities, that is something they could block.

The polls closed at the top of the hour. Early vote counting is underway across Taiwan. We are expecting early results to come in no later than 10:00 pm.

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STOUT: When we do get the results we will bring it to you right here on CNN.

ALLEN: I'm watching the video, intrigued by the vote counting and the system they use. Kristie Lu Stout, thanks.

George and I will have the day's top stories for you. HOWELL: NEWSROOM is back right after the break.