MSGID: 2:292/854 1a23173d   
   The Iranian authorities are not going to send the black boxes of the shoot   
   down Ukrainian passenger plane to Kiev.   
       
   Yesterday it sounded that the black boxes were going to Kiev for   
   investigation, but Tehran is now backpedaling on this for unknown reasons.   
   "The flight recorders are in Iran and will not be handed over to anyone yet,"   
   said the spokesperson for the aviation authority, Hassan Rezaeifar.   
       
   Troops from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard accidentally shot down a plane   
   from Ukraine International Airlines on January 8. All 176 people on board were   
   killed. The shooting of the Ukrainian plane happened several hours after Iran   
   fired rockets at Iraqi bases that are also used by the United States.   
       
   Those attacks were a retribution for the American attack on top Iranian   
   general Qassem Soleimani. According to the Iranian authorities, everything was   
   prepared to accommodate an American counterattack, and they mistakenly took   
   the Ukrainian plane for a threat.   
       
   The investigation on the black boxes of the Ukrainian aircraft will now be   
   done in Iran itself. The black boxes would only be sent to Ukraine or France   
   if the investigation turned out to be technically impossible. "But nothing has   
   been decided yet," said Rezaeifar.   
       
   Rezaeifar said on Saturday that the investigation was not possible in Iran   
   because the country does not have the necessary software to download the data.   
   It is unclear whether that is suddenly possible.   
      
   --- D'Bridge 4   
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