Iran’s hardline Kayhan daily has lashed out at news outlets for publishing an interview with the family of two victims who died in the downing of an airliner, saying they have a pro-US agenda.

During the interview, parents of two victims had said that the airliner was shot down deliberately to prevent possible US retaliation in the wake of Iran's missile attack on US bases in Iraq on January 8, 2020.

In an article titled "Revenge against the Revolutionary Guards on behalf of the United States”, Kayhan lodged an attack Tuesday against reformist outlets Ensaf News and Sharq newspaper, saying they want to create a poisonous atmosphere about the downing of the airliner.

The article said Mohsen Asadi-Lari, a former high-ranking health ministry official, and his wife Zahra Majd who lost both their children, misquoted remarks by Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) officials in their interview.

The bereaved parents, who broke their silence after two years, said IRGC officials had told themthat a war with the US could have happened if the plane was not shot down. "They say if the plane was not downed a difficult war would happen the next day. The US would have attacked, and ten million lives would be in danger."

Kayhan is known to be the mouthpiece for a lot of smear campaigns against the critics of the Islamic Republic and its Revolutionary Guards.