Iran, an ancient civilization of historical brilliance, is morally decrepit in the modern world.

Had the theocratic dictatorship even a shred of decency, it would seize this awful moment to prove it deserves any benefit of doubt for what befell Flight 752 on Wednesday, killing all 176 passengers and crew aboard, including at least 63 Canadians and many more who had been living, studying and working in this country.

If a deliberate missile strike against a civilian aircraft, that’s a crime against humanity and an act of war.

If a godawful mistake — as U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau now speculate — a pair of SA-15 surface-to-air missiles locking onto the Ukrainian International Airlines flight, blasting it out of the sky within minutes of departure from Tehran, then legally and ethically culpable.

If a catastrophic mechanical accident or pilot error — both scenarios characterized as dubious by a widening array of international aviation experts — then of crucial importance to global safety agencies.

Which means sharing data retrieved from the plane’s “black boxes” with Canadian crash investigators as well as Boeing — the only issue on which Iran has thus far budged minimally, on Thursday announcing it had reversed its original position of denying those contents to the American manufacturer of the 737, one of the safest passenger aircraft criss-crossing the planet.

Outrageously, there is no international agency with the clout to compel co-operative obedience from Tehran, despite Iran being a signatory to an agreement among 193 countries — Annex 13 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation — which places public safety above any national or ideological considerations.

The Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, identifies stakeholders that can participate in crash investigations: states where the aircraft is registered, manufactured, designed or operated, or has “a special interest in an accident, for example by virtue of the number of its citizens involved in or impacted by it …” which would permit a country’s investigators to visit the scene and have access to all the factual information released by the country where it occurred.

A spokesperson for the ICAO tells the Star, via email: “ICAO does not have a role in the investigation.”

Then who the hell? Because Iran cannot be allowed to hide behind its bell jar secrecy. Certainly not as the world’s leading exporter of state terrorism, interstate geopolitical meddling and reckless provocation.

It is becoming grotesquely evident that the calamity which engulfed Flight 752 was not a random tragedy; at best, it was an unintentional disaster. Perhaps — one theory — a panicked split-second response by Iranian missile unit commanders on the ground who saw something on radar, believed they were under attack and fired.

Another theory: Against the backdrop of rapidly unfolding events — about four hours after Iran launched ballistic missiles at U.S. targets in Iraq in retaliation for the targeted killing of Iranian terrorist mastermind Maj. Gen Qassem Soleimani — something flying through the air that exploded so near the doomed plane that it set off catastrophic consequences.

And who pays for such unpremeditated, wildly heedless malice? Certainly not Russia, held responsible by a Dutch-led investigation after Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was shot down in July 2014 by a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile launched by pro-Russian rebels near the border, killing all 298 people on board. The Buk missile was one of two that had been transported from Russia on that very day. (Moscow continues to deny involvement.)

Governments and militants so wilfully indiscriminate, pitiless to the murder of innocent civilians, can never be trusted. Iran, today, can’t be trusted.

On Wednesday, Trudeau said it was too soon to speculate about causes of the crash in Iran. That was a cautious but preposterous position. It’s never too soon to speculate, particularly when dealing with a chronically mendacious state such as Iran. By Thursday, Trudeau had abruptly shifted suppositions.

“We have intelligence from multiple sources including our allies and our own intelligence,” the prime minister told reporters at an Ottawa news conference. “The evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile. This may well have been unintentional.”

In Washington, Trump — who’d made no mention of the crash in his address to the nation 24 hours earlier, wherein he’d claimed Iran “appears to be standing down” following its measured retaliatory actions for the killing of Soleimani — offered similar (if un-Trumpian in its qualification) shade for colossally grave debacle and gross error.

While implying that Iran was responsible, Trump avoided laying direct blame on Tehran. Somebody could have made a mistake on the other side, said the president, noting the plane was flying in a “pretty rough neighbourhood.” Meaning, presumably, a kinetic region of heightened tensions.

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“Some people say it was mechanical. I personally don’t think that’s even a question.”

Not deliberate is not much cover.

Multiple media outlets, citing unidentified sources, have described extensive probing of the air space over Iran by satellite, radio and airborne info gathering systems, intensified since recent tit-for-tat strikes between Iran and the U.S.

Video obtained by the New York Times and CNN appears to show a missile striking the passenger jet. It is believed the culprit was one — or two — Russian-made SA-15 Tor missiles. Russia has sold the Tor missile system to at least 10 countries since 2017.

Mechanical crisis or pilot error does not explain the rapid descent of that aircraft, according to aviation experts. Debris unique to a missile strike could be identified by experts in the shattered plane’s remnants — evidence Iran would surely be loath to reveal.

Nor has there been any explanation for the alleged radio silence between the passenger jet’s pilots in those less than two minutes between takeoff and crash, when the Kyiv-bound plane had apparently beginning to turn back toward the airport. Only a catastrophic event would have knocked out all communication technology.

Video broadcast earlier by Iranian state television — when everybody was still assuring that the disaster was an accident — showed flames coming from the aircraft, then a blinding flash as the plane, fully loaded with fuel, slammed into the ground. As of Thursday evening, 45 aviation investigators from Ukraine were scouring the gruesome crash site.

Late reports from Iran claimed one of the black boxes had been extensively damaged and authorities in Iran have asked Canada for expert assistance.

An Iranian spokesman for the armed forces, Brig. Gen. Abolfazi Shekarch, dismissed speculation that the plane was shot down as American “psychological war,” “ridiculous” and an “utter lie,” according to Iran’s Mehr news agency.

Which liar are you more inclined to believe?

Collateral damage, all those victims, in the ghastly euphemism. But how will the world hold Iran to account? Will European nations, so averse to antagonizing Tehran, line up in solidarity against the mad mullahs? What about the anti-war hawks — they’re assuredly not doves — who’ve shown they will absolve Iran of anything, including all its ravaging proxy wars, if that aligns them against the U.S.? And what of Canada, so grievously affected by the loss of lives, which doesn’t even have diplomatic relations with Iran and must deal with the regime via state intermediaries?

“Canadians have questions and they deserve answers,” Trudeau declared on Thursday.

Empty words signifying nothing. As useless as thoughts and prayers.

Rosie DiManno is a columnist based in Toronto covering sports and current affairs. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno

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