Middle East & North Africa

TEHRAN, January 11. /TASS/: The flight data recorders of the Ukrainian plane, which was shot down due to human error by the Iranian armed forces near Tehran, will be sent for decoding to France, the chief of the air incidents investigation board of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization Hassan Rezaiefar said.

"Flight data recorders of the Ukrainian plane will be sent to France," he was quoted as saying by the IRNA news agency on Saturday.

TEHRAN, January 11. /TASS/: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has pledged to complete the investigation of the crash of Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 plane near Tehran and prosecute those responsible for it, according to a respective statement made on Saturday after Iranian Armed Forces’ General Staff said that the plane was shot down due to human error.

ALGIERS, Jan 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Algerian Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum said Algiers and Rome share convergent views over the necessity to reach a cease-fire in war-ridden Libya.

Coordination between Algeria and Italy on Libya is “very good,” Boukadoum told a joint press conference attended by his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio in Algiers, APS news agency reported.

He said that “a political solution is the most appropriate to Libya.”

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - The global economy is going into 2020 in better shape than last year, Sultan al-Jaber, the chief executive of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) said on Saturday, adding that he was pleased regional tension had dissipated in the past few days.

“The UAE will be the first country in the region to operate a safe commercial, peaceful nuclear power station,” Jaber also told an energy event in the capital, Abu Dhabi.

TEHRAN, Jan 11 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The General Staff of the Iranian armed forces admitted on Saturday that the Ukrainian Boeing 737 passenger plane had been unintentionally shot down by Iranian forces, Sputnik news agency reported, quoting the IRIB state TV and radio broadcaster.

“As a result of a human error, the plane was unintentionally shot down,” the General Staff said in a statement, as quoted by the IRIB state TV and radio broadcaster.

MUSCAT, Jan 11 (NNN-ONA) – To the people of the beloved homeland in all its districts, to the Arab and Islamic nations and to the world at large.

TEHRAN, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Iran's armed forces on Saturday confirmed that an "unintentional" missile launch by the country's military was the cause of the Ukrainian International Airlines passenger plane crash over Tehran airspace on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian plane "was mistaken for a hostile target" near an Iranian "sensitive military site of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)" on Wednesday amid rising threats by the United States, a statement by the Iranian armed forces published by the official IRNA news agency read.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Oman announced Saturday culture minister Haitham bin Tariq Al Said as the new ruler of the Gulf Arab country, ending speculation over the mystery of who would succeed longtime ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said.

The announcement on Omani state television was read over footage showing thousands gathered in the capital, Muscat, for the funeral of Sultan Qaboos who ruled the country for 50 years and did not have any children. His choice of successor was a closely guarded secret believed to have been known only to the sultan.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader has offered condolences and called for an investigation after his country’s armed forces acknowledged that they accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday expressed his “deep sympathy” to the families of the 176 victims, and called on the armed forces to “pursue probable shortcomings and guilt in the painful incident.”

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the Mideast’s longest-ruling monarch who seized power in a 1970 palace coup and pulled his Arabian sultanate into modernity while carefully balancing diplomatic ties between adversaries Iran and the U.S., has died. He was 79.

The state-run Oman News Agency announced his death early Saturday on its official Twitter account. The sultan was believed to have been in poor health and traveled to Belgium for what the court described as a medical checkup last month. The royal court declared three days of mourning.