Iran air crash will see few Western investigators
Iran is allowing forensics experts from the United States, Canada, and France to participate in the investigation into the Ukrainian airliner disaster.
A possible sign of cooperation, as Washington and Tehran stare down the prospect of open war.
But it's not yet clear how much access they'll be given.
Canada, which lost 63 of its citizens, believes the plane was shot down by Iranian air defenses.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER JUSTIN TRUDEAU, SAYING:
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"The news will undoubtedly come as a further shock to the families who are already grieving in the face of this unspeakable tragedy. We have intelligence from multiple sources, including our allies and our own intelligence."
However, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, and its French and Canadian counterparts, are reportedly only being allowed to send a single delegate each.
Iran still intends to download the black box data itself, a process it says could take up two two months.
And it says there's no way it shot down the plane with 176 aboard, including its own citizens.
A U.S. government official says the evidence is fairly conclusive. They told Reuters that a satellite detected the heat signatures of two anti-aircraft missiles two minutes after the plane took off from Tehran.
There was an explosion in the area, and then the satellite showed the plane on fire as it fell.
The disaster struck just hours after the Iranian missile strikes on Iraqi military bases housing U.S. coalition troops.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:
"It was flying in a pretty rough neighborhood, and somebody could have made a mistake"
Meanwhile in Brussels, the European Union's foreign ministers and the NATO secretary-general conducted an emergency meeting over the crisis.
The Europeans are hoping that they can find a way to save the 2015 nuclear deal and guide Washington and Tehran away from another open conflict.
In Baghdad, the potential frontline, the Washington Post is reporting that Iraq's prime minister has asked the U.S. to devise a method to completely withdraw the American forces there.
