WASHINGTON, July 22: The United States has no agenda except for getting to the truth of shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, allegedly by the Russia-backed Ukrainian separatist, the White House has said.
“The (US) President’s priority is that this investigation should be conducted by an international set of investigators that don’t have an agenda beyond getting to the truth,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.
His remarks came as the Obama Administration intensified its international effort for an independent and impartial investigation into the shooting down of the Malaysian plane that killed all the 298 people on board.
The Boeing 777 was on a scheduled flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down over pro-Russia rebels-held territory of the eastern Ukraine on Thursday.
It is still not clear if the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down purposely or mistakenly.
“We want to make sure that those who are conducting this investigation aren’t just neutral arbiters, but are also trained; that these are professionals who are conducting these investigations, people that have experience in dealing with these kinds of matters,” Earnest said.
“That is the focus of the President’s immediate concern right now. That is why we believe that President (Vladimir) Putin should take the steps that are necessary to use his influence to ensure that those international investigators can have access to the scene so we can get to the bottom of what exactly happened. That should be, frankly, in everybody’s interest,” he said in response to a question.
Public reports and some intelligence assessments, he noted, paint a pretty clear picture about what’s happened and who is culpable.
“It also paints a pretty clear picture of how the Russians have contributed to this tragedy. It is why we are hopeful that the pressure of the international community can be brought to bear in a way that will force Russia and President Putin to contribute to a solution to the situation in Ukraine,” he said.
“The investigation that we would like to see on the ground would only add to the body of evidence that’s already been assembled and reported about what exactly happened last Thursday morning in eastern Ukraine,” he said.
“So everybody that is interested in the truth and getting to the bottom of what actually happened will be strongly supportive of ensuring that these international, impartial, professional investigators have unfettered access to the scene so that they can determine exactly what happened and why it happened,” Earnest added. (PTI)
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