Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon has visited one of the passengers who was seriously injured during the recent harassment of an Iranian aircraft by two US warplanes.
Mohammad Jalal Firouznia, along with the Iranian cultural attaché in Lebanon Abbas Khamehyar, on Saturday visited one of the passengers hospitalized in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
“Yesterday (Saturday), together with Mr. Firouznia, our country's ambassador to Lebanon, we attended Beirut’s Al Rasoul Al Aazam Hospital and visited one of the passengers injured during the US harassment of Mahan passenger plane, and thanked the doctors and nurses of the hospital,” Khamehyar wrote on his Facebook page.
Iran's ambassador had earlier censured the harassment as a "blatant example of terrorist acts by the US" in the region.
On Thursday night, US F-15 warplanes operating illegally in Syria, conducted some “dangerous” maneuvering close to the Mahan Air flight in an act of air piracy.
The Mahan Air Flight 1152 had taken off from Tehran and was en route to the Lebanese capital when the incident happened over Syria’s al-Tanf region.
The pilot was forced to swiftly lower the altitude at which the airliner was flying to avoid a collision with the warplanes. The precaution resulted in the injury of some of the passengers, who hit their heads hard against the ceiling.
The flight, nevertheless, landed safely afterwards in the Lebanese capital, and all the passengers left the airliner.
In a post on his official Twitter account, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denounced Washington for harassing the Iranian passenger and endangering the lives of civilians.
"US illegally occupies territory of another State and then harasses a scheduled civil airliner—endangering innocent civilian passengers ostensibly to protect its occupation forces," the top Iranian diplomat said.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that once the final report on the incident is out, the Islamic Republic’s mission to the United Nations will start taking legal and diplomatic measures, including filing complaints in pursuit of the matter.