Is Iran linked to the Fly Dubai plane incident? Trump responds

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the pilot of the Emirati company Flydubai - who allegedly attacked the pilot of the plane during a flight bound for Tel Aviv on Wednesday - may have a connection to Iran. Trump told reporters at the White House: “I would say the answer, based on what I hear, is yes,” adding: “But we are working on verifying the matter now.”

The identity of the accused pilot has not been publicly revealed, but Israel says he holds Omani citizenship. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also stated that the alleged attacker “underwent a process of extremist Islamic ideological indoctrination.” Trump was also asked if it was possible that the pilot “was pushed there by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard” or was “radicalized in some other way,” to which Trump replied, “It may be possible.”

The US President said on Wednesday that he spoke with Netanyahu about the attack. Netanyahu said that a pilot stabbed his colleague on the plane and tried to “sabotage the plane’s systems,” and the plane descended sharply for thousands of feet within two minutes, which sparked a state of panic and forced the flight to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.