Cooperation key to success in Ukraine plane crash talks: Zarif
Iran’s foreign minister says cooperation among all the involved parties is key to the success of ongoing talks over the unintentional shooting down of a Ukrainian plane by the Iranian air defense in January.
Mohammad Javad Zarif made the remarks in a meeting on Monday in Tehran with the visiting Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Yevheniy Yenin.
During the meeting, Zarif described the first round of talks between the two countries over the plane crash as “positive and constructive.”
He expressed hope that the negotiations for the settlement of the case would reach a desirable result through cooperation and coordination between Tehran and Kiev.
With 167 passengers and nine crewmembers on board, Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 crashed outside Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport on January 8, moments after take-off.
Iranian authorities acknowledged that the plane had been downed due to human error at a time when Iran's air defenses were on high alert due to increased hostile American aerial activity in the aftermath of Iran's missile strike on an Iraqi military base, which houses US terrorist forces in the Arab country.
Following the incident, the plane's black box was analyzed at the Civil Aviation Investigation Bureau in France and representatives from the US, Ukraine, France, Canada, Britain and Sweden — the countries whose citizens lost their lives in the crash — were present during the process.
MG
