ISLAMABAD – Acting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says there isunverified information that at least six American F-35 jets were “in theIranian border area” at the time when Iran accidentally downed UkraineInternational Airlines flight PS752 last week.

“This information has yet to be verified, but I’d like to underline theedginess that always accompanies such situations,” he said on Friday.

Lavrov stressed that it was important to understand the context of theincident, which occurred as Iran was on very high alert after retaliatingagainst Washington’s assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.

“There is information that the Iranians were expecting another attack fromthe United States after the strike but did not know what form it mighttake,” Lavrov said.

The Russian foreign minister added that he was not trying to excuse anyonefor the incident.

On January 8, the Ukrainian plane crashed minutes after take-off near thecapital, Tehran, while en route to Kiev. The incident led to the death ofall of the 176 people on board, most of whom were Iranians.

Iran initially attributed the crash to technical failure but ultimatelyannounced that the plane had been brought down by a missile fired due to“human error” after conducting further investigations.

‘Very serious red flag’

Speaking on Friday, the Russian foreign minister also said that the tragicdowning of the Ukrainian plane served as a “very serious red flag” thatsignaled a need to “start working on de-escalation and not on constantthreats.”

“An increase in tensions between Iran and the US will not help settle anysingle crisis in the region, if only because the tensions will beincreasing,” he said.

Lavrov added that Washington’s “unprecedented” assassination of Soleimani“undermined and put into question all imaginable norms of internationallaw.”

According to Iraqi officials, Soleimani had been invitedlinktoIraq as a formal guest of the Iraqi government when he was targeted by a USdrone strike at Baghdad International Airport.