FMs press Iran on probe into plane crash

Foreign ministers from several countries whose citizens were killed in the Iran plane crash last month met on Saturday to press Iran on the need for a swift investigation into the disaster.

Ministers from Canada, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Sweden and the UK - all countries which had victims in the crash - met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

"On behalf of the grieving nations of this tragedy, we told Minister Zarif in no uncertain terms that Iran must take steps towards resolving many outstanding questions of fact and of law raised by the flight", said François-Philippe Champagne, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Champagne said the countries had pressed Iran on the need for compensation for the victims' families and "a thorough, transparent and credible investigation".

"This, of course, means allowing for the black boxes to be transferred to a facility with the capacity to properly download and analyze their contents", he said.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko commented on the need for quick resolution to the requests, saying: "we're not going to wait long...we are talking about weeks and months, we're not talking about years."

Flight PS752 crashed near the Iranian capital Tehran on January 8, after two missiles were fired at the plane from an Iranian air base.

The crash killed all 176 people on board.

Iran has acknowledged it shot down the Ukrainian jetliner by accident, during a period of heightened tensions between the country and the US over the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani on January 3.