"Iran has lied. Same way as they were lying about its secret nuclear program they now lie about the Ukrainian plane. They knew from the very start that they had shot it down. They knew that it was shot down unintentionally, but they lied deliberately. The deceived the entire world," Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting.
He said it was not how a civilized nation would behave and went on to expressing "condolences to the victims of Iran's deception and negligence."
Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 crashed near Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport minutes after takeoff on Wednesday.
All 176 people on board were killed. The crash occurred shortly after Iran launched airstrikes against US bases in neighboring Iraq. On Saturday, the Iranian military admitted to unintentionally shooting down the jetliner, having confused it with a hostile cruise missile in anticipation of a retaliatory strike from the US.
