Netanyu’s on arrival at Entebbe airport as welcomed by Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda

At Entebbe airport, Mr. Netanyahu who is  companied by  his wife, Sarah Netanyahu,  was welcomed by Prime Minister Ruhakana, state minister for foreign affairs Okello Oryem among other officials.

“I am setting out for another visit to Africa, my fifth in three and a half years,” Netanyahu was quoted by local media before taking off from Tel Aviv.

“Israel is making a big return to Africa, and Africa has already returned to Israel. These are important ties politically, economically and in terms of security,” he said, adding that he hopes to have good news upon his return.

Netanyus disembark from the plane at Entebbe airport

In July 2016, Natanyahu participated in a ceremony in Uganda to mark the 40th anniversary of Operation Entebbe, a hostage rescue by Israeli commandos at Entebbe Airport in 1976.

The operation, which aimed to rescue 106 passengers of an Air France flight that was hijacked by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, succeeded in freeing 102 of the hostages. Netanyahu’s brother Yonatan, who led the mission, was killed.

It has also been reported that in the past, Israel contacted the American administration and other foreign governments in an attempt to encourage them to improve their relations with Sudan and to make overtures in its favor, in light of the severance of ties between the Arab-African country and Iran.

Reports in Israel and abroad in recent years have said that Israel might renew its diplomatic relations with several Muslim countries on the African continent, including Mali, Niger and Sudan.

Prime Minister, Ruhakana Rugunda welcomes Israeli’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Entebbe airport

After Netanyahu visited Chad in 2019, it was reported that Israel was working to formalize ties with Sudan, and Israeli officials spoke about it publicly on several occasions, especially after the ouster of dictator Omar al-Bashir.

Haaretz previously reported that Israel had secretly deported asylum seekers from different African countries to Uganda.

To this day, asylum seekers are being deported to Uganda in what Israel has called “voluntary departure.”

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The statement on Saturday morning blames “human error” for the incident, adding that the military mistook Flight 752 for a “hostile target”.

Press TV also quoted Iran’s General Staff of the Armed Forces as saying that the plane had flown close to a “sensitive military site”.

Ukranian plane crash site

The military said it was at its “highest level of readiness” amid the heightened tensions with the United States.

“In such a condition, because of human error and in a unintentional way, the flight was hit,” the military said. It apologised and said it would upgrade its systems to prevent future tragedies.

In a statement posted on social media, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani wrote that the country “deeply regrets this disastrous mistake”.

“My thoughts and prayers go to all the mourning families. I offer my sincerest condolences,” he said, adding that “investigations continue to identify and prosecute this great tragedy and unforgivable mistake”.

Iran had denied for several days that a missile downed the aircraft. But then the US and Canada, citing intelligence, said they believe Iran shot down the aircraft.

On Friday, Ali Abedzadeh, head of Iran’s civil aviation authority, said it was impossible due to close coordination between Iran’s air defence and the civil aviation department.

“What is obvious for us, and what we can say with certainty, is that no missile hit the plane,” Abedzadeh told reporters in Tehran.

The jetliner, a Boeing 737 operated by Ukraine International Airlines, went down on the outskirts of Tehran during takeoff just hours after Iran launched a barrage of missiles at US forces in Iraq.

Al Jazeera’s Assed Baig, reporting from Tehran, said questions were now being raised as to why Iranian authorities kept the country’s air space open during a military operation.

“There’s a lot of explaining to do by Iranian authorities. People want to know why and how it happened.”

In a social media post, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that “human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to the disaster”.

“Our profound regrets, apologies and condolences to our people, to the families of all victims and to other affected nations.”

A team from Iran’s Red Crescent searched the debris for victims

The plane, en route to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members from several countries, including 82 Iranians, 57 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians, when it was shot down.

“This is the right step for the Iranian government to admit responsibility and it gives people a step toward closure with this admission,” said Payman Parseyan, a prominent Iranian-Canadian in western Canada who lost a number of friends in the crash.

“I think the investigation would have disclosed it whether they admitted it or not. This will give them an opportunity to save face,” he told AP news agency.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 to Kyiv has today 8th January 2020 crashed after taking off from Imam Khomeini airport in Tehran at 06:12 local time (02:42 GMT) according to BBC sources.

The majority of passengers were from Iran and Canada.

Ukraine’s Tehran embassy initially blamed engine failure but later removed the statement.

It said any comment regarding the cause of the accident prior to a commission’s inquiry was not official. Iranian media blamed technical problems and quoted an aviation official who said no emergency had been declared.

Ukrainian Plane that crashed in Iran killing 176 passengers and crew members

Debris and engine parts from the Boeing 737-800 NG plane were found some 10km (6 miles) from the airport and rescue workers with face masks searched the wreckage for victims.

Throughout the morning, Red Crescent workers laid out a long line of body bags.

Hours before the plane came down Iran carried out a ballistic missile attack on two air bases housing US forces in Iraq. There is no evidence that the two incidents were linked.

A team from Iran’s Red Crescent searched the debris for victims

A series of airlines announced on Wednesday that they were avoiding both Iranian and Iraqi airspace.

Air France and KLM said they would use alternative routes while Lufthansa said it was also cancelling its daily flight to Tehran. Qantas, Air India, Japan Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines were among other airlines taking action.

Who was on board?

Among the victims were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians including all nine crew, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Britons and three Germans, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said.
Ukrainian officials said that 169 people had bought tickets for the flight but two had not boarded the plane.
It was unclear why such a large number of Canadians were on board, however the airline provides relatively inexpensive flights via Kyiv to Toronto.
Sweden’s foreign ministry said its embassy in Tehran was seeking further information about the crash. Foreign Minister Ann Linde said she had spoken to Mr Prystaiko.
Iran’s head of emergency operations said 147 of the victims were Iranian. That would suggest that 65 of the foreign nationals had dual nationalities.

• Three British nationals among dead in plane crash

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was cutting short a trip to Oman and flying back to Kyiv. He warned against “speculation or unchecked theories regarding the catastrophe” until official reports were ready.

“My sincere condolences to the relatives and friends of all passengers and crew,” he said in a statement.

Ukraine International Airlines has suspended flights to Tehran indefinitely. The airline said that the Boeing 737-800 was built in 2016 and had its last scheduled maintenance on Monday.

There was no sign of any problems with the plane before take-off and the airline’s president said it had an “excellent, reliable crew”. UIA has never had a fatal crash before.

Mr Zelensky said Ukraine’s entire civil aviation fleet would be checked for airworthiness and criminal proceedings would be opened into the disaster.

Crash scene

Rescue teams have been sent to the crash site but the head of Iran’s Red Crescent told state media that it was “impossible” for anyone to have survived the crash.

Rescue workers had found one of the airliner’s black boxes, Iranian media reported.

Ukraine has organised special planes to fly to Iran to take back the bodies of those killed, pending Iran’s agreement, Mr Zelensky said.

This type of Boeing is one of the most widely-used commercial airliners in the world. Aviation safety analyst Todd Curtis told the BBC: “The airplane was heavily fragmented which means either there was an intense impact on the ground or something happened in the sky,” he said.

What went wrong?

Flight data from the Ukrainian Airlines Boeing 737-800 is openly available online. It shows that the plane climbed normally after taking-off from Tehran.

It reached nearly 8,000ft (2,400m) before the aircraft’s data suddenly disappears.

This is unusual and would suggest some type of catastrophic incident on board the plane. We have no evidence at this stage to tell us what caused the incident.

According to a former air crash investigator, any suggestion of engine failure feels premature. This possibility can’t be ruled out at this early stage but an airliner such as the Boeing 737-800 is designed to keep flying if there is an engine failure.

Plus, if there was a failure then we would normally expect the flight data to show the plane’s climb becoming less steep.

What do we know about the airline?

By Vitaliy Shevchenko, BBC Monitoring

Ukraine International is a well-established private airline with a very good safety record. The Tehran crash is its first such accident since it was founded in 1992.

Although it is not strictly speaking a budget airline, many of its worldwide flights are keenly priced and therefore popular with travellers.

There is no Iranian community of any size in Ukraine and few Ukrainians in Iran, so the Tehran-Kyiv flight is above all a connecting service to destinations beyond Ukraine.

The 63 Canadians killed in the crash had most likely intended to board a later flight from Kyiv to Toronto. Canada’s biggest city is home to a large Iranian community and is even referred to by some Iranians as “Tehran-to”.

After the crash, Ukraine International suspended its services to and from Tehran until further notice.

There are several thousand Boeing 737-800s in operation around the world which have completed tens of millions of flights. They have been involved in 10 incidents, including this crash, where at least one passenger was killed, Mr Curtis said.

Mr Curtis said Iranian, Ukrainian, US and French authorities would all be involved in the investigation, but it was unclear how they would work together. Iran is currently under US sanctions and there are severe tensions between the two countries.

Normally the US National Transportation Safety Board would have a role to play in the investigation.

“From all appearances this was an airplane that had been properly cared for and there were no outstanding issues with respect to European authorities or American authorities so at this point there is nothing that points to a particular cause,” Mr Curtis said.

“And also one cannot discount the possibility that something outside the aircraft, a mid-air collision or some other issue, may have been involved.”

Source: BBC 

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The Speaker and H.E Dr. Amir

Kadaga stressed  the need for closer inter Parliamentary cooperation between Uganda and Iran. She promised to revamp the inter-parliamentary friendship between the two sister parliaments. She also appealed to the Ambassador to consider the training of youths and industrialization outside the city among the key areas that require urgent intervention.

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The government of Iran is preparing to open the first art of the Muslim Women Centre in Uganda’s capital city, Kampala come 8^th Friday Marc 2013 during the celebrations of the International Women’s Day. Sources told us that Iran will secretly fund the activities of the centre through Uganda Muslim Women Vision.

Impeccable sources told us that Iran is dedicated to development of Muslim projects, plans and activities and empowerment of Muslim women and the girl child in Uganda and Africa at large.

Invitation to the official opening of Muslim women center is circulating to Muslim leaders and some key opposition politicians.

The function will run under the theme “Gender Agenda Gaining Momentum; Skilling the Nation”. According to the sources privy to the information, the activity of the Iran sponsored event will start at 10.00am to 2.00pm in Bweyogerere, Kampala. The chief guest will be Prince Al-Hajj Kassim Nakibinge Kakungulu.

Ends

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Uganda Parliament has supported the proposed construction of a specialized health facility to handle maternal and neo-natal health in Kampala.

The money to be used in the construction of this health facility has been donated by the Islamic Development Bank. The member countries of the Islamic Development bank include Syria, Iran, Lebanon and Somalia.

Sources in government told us that the hospital to be built will also house a functional tertiary referral 320-bed specialized maternal and neo-natal health care unit.

Currently the maternal and infant mortality rate in Uganda stands at 435 maternal deaths per 1000 live births and 76 deaths per 1,000 respectively.

Sources in Uganda’s health sector say that the construction of this female health facility will check on the poor health infrastructure at Mulago hospital.  The sources also add that this women hospital to be built will check on the ever increasing number of patients.

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Our reporters walked on the streets of Kampala and randomly asked Ugandans what they think about the anticipated war betweenIranandAmerica. Many of the respondents wishedIranto defeat America.

Sheikh Mohammad Musa of Kibuli Mosque says that a chance has come for Americato be challenged militarily and technologically. Sheikh Musa condemns America for being behind human loses inRwanda, Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan among other countries. He wished its downfall. Another Ugandan Denis Matovu, a Christian and a trader on Kampala streets was no different from Mohammad Musa who was a Muslim.

He says that many people in the world are not happy with America’s negative plans on other countries. Matovu says that Americait seems is not happy with Iran’s progress in science and technology. It should also be noted that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his predecessor Akbar Rafsanjani are good friends of president Museveni and the ruling party in Uganda, the National Resistance Movement.

By Walakira Nyanzi

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