Ukraine, Iran to hold talks on issues related to Ukrainian plane crash - Foreign Ministry

Ukraine and Iran will hold talks on problematic issues related to the crash of a Ukrainian passenger jet near Tehran, and a Ukrainian official delegation is currently being formed.

This issue was discussed at a meeting between Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhenii Yenin and Iran's Ambassador to Ukraine Manouchehr Moradi, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's press service reported.

"A range of issues related to the downing of Boeing-737 flight PS752 of Ukraine International Airlines in Iran on January 8 were discussed at the meeting. [...] The deputy minister informed the interlocutor about the formation of an official delegation of Ukraine for the talks with Iran. In the near future, Ukraine will introduce its team of negotiators," the report reads.

The need for the Iranian side to ensure a transparent and objective investigation aimed at establishing the causes of the plane crash, bringing the perpetrators to justice, paying compensation to the families of the victims and more was stressed at the meeting.

"In this regard, Yevhenii Yenin emphasized the importance of full and unconditional cooperation between the Iranian side in the issue of reading flight recorders as soon as possible in accordance with international law," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

Moradi, in turn, said that Iran was ready for the dialogue with Ukraine in the legal, technical and political spheres to resolve issues related to the consequences of the plane crash and added that Iran considered Ukraine to be a priority state in the context of the investigation and examination of the black box flight recorders from the downed plane.

The ambassador also noted that reports in some Iranian media about the intentions of the Iranian government to transfer the flight recorders to France, given the "delay" of the negotiation process by Ukraine, were not true and did not reflect Tehran's official position.

The participants in the meeting agreed to strengthen cooperation at the diplomatic level in order to speed up the resolution of existing issues.

op