The two black boxes from the Ukrainian airliner that crashed outside Tehran early on Wednesday were found, Iranian state television reported, but hours later an Iranian official said it would not let the US look into the data they recorded.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
Iran's head of civil aviation said the Islamic republic "will not give the black boxes of the crashed Ukrainian airliner to Boeing." The official did not say if the boxes would be given to anyone outside the country, but the shunning of the US manufacturer appears to be in retaliation to US economic sanctions that have prevented Iran from acquiring new aircraft.
The Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 crashed earlier on Wednesday, killing all 176 people aboard shortly after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport.
The Iranian decision adds mystery to the circumstances of the crash, which happened almost at the same time as Iran was firing missiles on an American base in Iraq, in retaliation for the killing of Qassem Suleimani, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force, one of Iran's most powerful military entities and a crucial tool in spreading its regional influence.
Suleimani, who was a designated terrorist by the US government, was killed in a targeted drone strike last week in Iraq. The Trump administration said he had been planning an imminent attack against US interests.
