Iran ready to hold talks on black boxes from downed Ukrainian plane

10.06.2020 14:46

Ukrinform

Ukraine's Ambassador to Iran Serhiy Burdyliak has held a meeting with Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for International and Legal Affairs Mohsen Baharvand during which the Iranian side stated its readiness to hold talks with Kyiv to resolve issues related to black box flight recorders from a downed Ukrainian passenger plane, according to Tasnim News Agency.

"In the meeting, the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister emphasized that he is prepared to hold talks with Ukrainian officials at any time and any place determined by Ukrainians at the earliest possible moment in order to immediately resolve the issues about the black boxes of the plane, paying compensation to families of the victims, and other issues relating to the tragic incident," the report reads.

The Ukrainian ambassador, in turn, said that he would immediately relay the idea to the relevant Ukrainian authorities and later inform the Iranian side about the results.

The Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) plane (flight PS752) heading from Tehran to Kyiv crashed shortly after it took off from the Imam Khomeini International Airport at about 06:00 Tehran time (04:30 Kyiv time) on January 8. There were 176 people on board – nine crew members (all Ukrainians) and 167 passengers (citizens of Ukraine, Iran, Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan, Germany, and the UK). They all died.

Iran's official in the International Civil Aviation Organization agreed in March to hand over the black box flight recorders to France or Ukraine for analysis, but this has not been done so far.

Iran has currently detained six people charged with the downing of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752.