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Brave 13-year-old boy's moving speech for dad who died in Iran plane crash

A 13-year-old boy whose father was one of the 176 passengers who died in a plane crash after Iran's government shot down a jet just outside Tehran delivered a heartbreaking speech at his memorial service.

Ryan Pourjam spoke about his father, Mansour, at Ottawa’s Carleton University in Ontario, Canada, where he earned his degree in biology, according to BuzzFeed News.

Mr Pourjam was most recently a dentist at Ottawa Denture and Implant Centre, where he worked for 12 years, the Ottawa Citizen reported.

In a video of Ryan's remarks given just a week after his dad's death posted by Canadian MP Catherine McKenna on Twitter, the boy appears largely focused on the positive.

Ryan Pourjam paid tribute to his father, Mansour, at Ottawa’s Carleton University in Ontario, Canada, in a moving speech.
Ryan Pourjam remembered his dad as a "strong" man who saw the positive in everything. Source: Twitter/CBC News via cathmckenna

"He’d always tell me to stay positive through the dark times and through the good, when we'd get stuck in traffic or when I couldn't get the coffee that I wanted," he said.

"I don’t want to talk about the bad things.

"Because I know that if my dad was alive, and if someone else died in the crash and that he was right here giving a speech, he wouldn't talk about the bad stuff. I won’t."

Ryan described his father in one word, which was "strong".

"He’s been through tragedy after tragedy, wall after wall, wrong turn after wrong turn, and he stood strong," he said while holding back tears.

"He was amazing and we loved each other."

Ryan said he was comforted by the people who showed up to the memorial to honour his dad, calling it "amazing".

"I stand up here a week after this horrible tragedy and I still can’t believe it. I feel like I’m dreaming," he concluded.

"But I know that if I was dreaming, and that if he woke me up, he'd tell me that it's going to be okay.

"And it will be."

The plane crash came as Iran launched “tens” of surface-to-surface missiles at Iraq’s Ain Assad air base housing US troops.

– AOL

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