Iran 'will resort to UN Security Council' over US 'threatening' of Iranian passenger plane

Iran is set to "protest" to the UN Security Council over a US interception of a Mahan Air passanger plane that resulted in injuries, Iranian state media reported on Friday.

The Iranian passenger flight from Tehran was en route to Beirut, when it was "threatened" by two US military jets, the IRNA report claimed.

Pending an investigation into the incident, Iran will take "necessary political and legal measures", the outlet cited Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi as saying.

On Thursday, the US Central Command acknowledged the incerception, but said a jet had merely conducted a "routine air mission" at a safe distance of nearly 1,000 meters from the other plane.

Meanwhile, Iran's Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) has claimed that the pilots had narrowly avoided a collision, injuring several passengers on board.

At the time, a pilot of the Mahan Air flight allegedly contacted the fighter jets to ask them to keep their distance.

Several passengers were immediately transported to the hospital upon landing in Beirut, a follow-up Iranian report said.

The US statement was released after IRIB aired footage of passengers on board screaming as the Mahan Air jetliner appeared to abruptly change course.

"While the [Iranian] plane was in the sky over Syria, the Zionist regime fighter jet approached the Mahan Airlines plane," IRIB's website initially reported.

Read also: Israeli missile strike kills 5 fighters in Syria: monitor

Quoting civil aviation sources, Syrian television and the official SANA news agency reportedly said that "planes believed to belong to the US-led coalition intercepted a civilian Iranian airplane in Syrian airspace in the Tanaf region, which forced the captain to undertake a sharp drop that led to light injuries among passengers."

After refuelling, the aircraft flew back to Tehran on Friday.

Mahan Air – a private Iranian airline established in 1991 – was sanctioned a decade later by the US, which accuses it of of providing financial, material and technological support to Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

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