TEHRAN (Dispatches) – The foreign ministers of Iran and Ukraine on Wednesday discussed the results of a recent visit to Kiev by an Iranian delegation for talks about the January 8 crash of a Ukrainian passenger plane near Tehran.
In a telephone conversation, Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba described the recent meeting as a positive step, Tasnim news agency reported.
They expressed hope that the continuation of talks and exchange of information between the two countries would help resolve the case as soon as possible and in a way that is satisfactory to the people of the both countries, particularly to the families and relatives of victims of the tragic incident, it said.
Foreign Minister Zarif voiced Iran’s readiness to pay compensation to the families and relatives of the victim as a step to alleviate their grief, Tansim said.
For his part, Kuleba said a delegation of negotiators from his country is ready to visit Tehran in October to proceed with the negotiations.
On Tuesday, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for International and Legal Affairs Mohsen Baharvand reacted to reports that Ukraine would insist on maximum compensation, stressing that international documents and treaties will be the criteria for the sum that Iran is going to pay.
The Kiev-bound UIA Boeing 737 crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran on January 8, killing all 176 people on board, mostly Iranians. Iran said they mistook the passenger plane for a missile at a time of high tensions with the United States.
An international team has started examining the black box flight recorders from the plane.