Ukraine welcomes 'constructive' negotiations with Iran over downed jetliner

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister said on July 31 that the first round of talks with Iran over the downing of a Ukrainian jetliner in Tehran had been constructive. After a meeting with an Iranian delegation, Dmytro Kuleba said in a video briefing that the talks lasted for around 11 hours, thanking the delegation for keeping a “constructive” attitude.

The Ukrainian jetliner was accidentally downed by Iranian missile, killing all 176 people on board, amid the escalation with the United States in January. Ukraine was not satisfied by the size of compensation for victims' families and Kuleba assured that the government would make every effort to maximise compensations.

Kuleba said that Ukraine has led the negotiations with Iran and he has no doubt that the government will bring Iran to justice. Ukraine will go to international courts in case of unsuccessful talks, said the minister revealing plan B.

“And plan A is negotiations with Iran and the solution of all these issues and the payment of compensation. We saw Iran was disposed to a serious and substantive conversation,” he added.

An international team is currently examining the black box recovered from the plane after it arrived in Paris recently. Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne took to Twitter to confirm the arrival of the black box after Iran delayed its release. The black box was sent to the Civil Aviation Safety Investigation and Analysis Bureau (BEA) on July 20.

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'Long overdue'

The members of the International Coordination and Response Group for the victims of Flight PS752, which includes Canada, Ukraine, Sweden, Afghanistan and the UK, had issued a joint statement welcoming the delivery of recorders to BEA. It said that the arrival of the black box was long overdue and is only a step towards completing the safety investigation.

“We reiterate our demand for Iran to conduct full, transparent, and independent flight safety investigation in accordance with international standards,” the statement read.

Earlier, the Civil Aviation Organisation of Iran (CAOI) had released a report on the investigations, blaming human error and poor military communication for the downing of the plane. The Iranian government had denied any ‘cover-up’ after taking days confirm that the Ukrainian jetliner was mistakenly downed by its own missile.

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