Press TV - Acting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says there is unverified information that at least six American F-35 jets were �in the Iranian border area� at the time when Iran accidentally downed Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 last week.


�This information has yet to be verified, but I�d like to underline the edginess that always accompanies such situations,� he said on Friday.

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

�There is information that the Iranians were expecting another attack from the United States after the strike but did not know what form it might take,� Lavrov said.

The Russian foreign minister�added�that he was not trying to excuse anyone for the incident.

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

Iran initially attributed the crash to technical failure but ultimately announced 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 tragic downing of the Ukrainian plane�served as a �very serious red flag� that signaled a need to �start working on de-escalation and not on constant threats.�

�An increase in tensions between Iran and the US will not help settle any single crisis in the region, if only because the tensions will be increasing,� he said.

Lavrov added that Washington�s �unprecedented� assassination of Soleimani �undermined and put into question all imaginable norms of international law.�

According to Iraqi officials, Soleimani had been invited to Iraq as a formal guest of the Iraqi government when he was targeted by a US drone strike at Baghdad�International�Airport.