REUTERS

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday the downing of a Ukrainian plane in Tehran "does not suggest an intentional act."

His comments come after multiple U.S. officials have said the U.S. increasingly believes that Iran mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian airliner on Wednesday, as reported by CNN.

"Australia has received similar intelligence to that which has been spoken to by both the Prime Minister of Canada and from the United States," Morrison told reporters in Canberra.

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"It is just a terrible, terrible event and we'll provide whatever support we can."

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The Australian Prime Minister also called for a probe into the disaster, saying "it is absolutely critical that full and transparent investigation is undertaken into this terrible event and that would include undertaking all efforts to ensure we get recovery of the black box recorder that can obviously inform that investigation."

Australia's flag carrier, Qantas, said earlier this week it is "adjusting its flight paths over the Middle East to avoid the airspace over Iraq and Iran until further notice."

As UNIAN reported earlier, on January 8, an UIA-operated Boeing 737-800, flight PS752 Tehran-Kyiv, crashed in Iran shortly after takeoff from Tehran Airport.

All 167 passengers and nine crew on board died. On board the airliner were 11 Ukrainians, including nine crew members, as well as 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 10 Swedes, four Afghanis, three Germans, and three Britons. All Ukrainian air carriers have been banned from flying in Iranian airspace pending the investigation.

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that Canadian officials have intelligence from their own sources and Canada's allies that shows the Ukrainian airliner was shot down by an Iranian surface to air missile.

Iran urged the United States on Friday to wait for the results of the investigation into the crash of a Ukrainian airliner and dismissed as "a big lie" allegations coming from U.S. officials that missiles downed the plane, Iranian state media reported, quoting a government spokesman.