Iran, Ukraine In New Round Of Talks Over Downed Plane

Iran is hosting officials from Ukraine in a second round of talks over compensation for a Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed shortly after takeoff in Tehran in January after being struck by two missiles, killing 176 people.

Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Yenin and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohsen Baharwand met in Tehran on October 19 at the start of the two-day talks.

Baharvand said Iran “has nothing to hide about this tragedy” and was ready to “honestly inform the Ukrainian people and delegation about the details” of the crash.

“We welcome Iran’s decision to take full responsibility for the downing of the Ukrainian plane, as well as its readiness to provide equal compensation to the relatives of all victims, regardless of their citizenship,” Yenin said.

The first round of talks between Ukrainian and Iranian officials was held in Kyiv in July, with Ukraine saying it was “cautiously optimistic” about the process.

Iranian officials have said that the country’s forces accidentally shot down the Kyiv-bound Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 on January 8.

A misaligned missile battery and miscommunication between soldiers and superior officers were to blame for incident, according to Iran’s aviation authorities.

Flight 752 was downed the same night that Iran had launched a ballistic-missile attack that targeted U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and Tehran’s air defenses were on high-alert at the time in case of retaliation.

Iran’s missile attack was in response to a U.S. drone strike that had killed the powerful commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Major General Qasem Soleimani, in Baghdad five days earlier.

With reporting by AFP, TASS, and IRNA