(Montreal) Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Ukraine condemned, on Wednesday, Tehran’s refusal to negotiate compensation for the families of the victims of Flight PS752, which was shot down by an Iranian missile nearly two years ago.
“We, the ministers representing Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Ukraine, express our deep disappointment that the Islamic Republic of Iran did not accept our multiple requests for a meeting on November 22, 2021,” we read in a press release presenting the joint declaration of the four countries.
On January 8, 2020, the Iranian Armed Forces shot down Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) Boeing Flight PS752 between Tehran and Kiev shortly after take-off.
Iran did not acknowledge the facts until three days later, saying it had shot down the plane “by mistake”.
The tragedy claimed the lives of 176 people on board, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.
“We remind the Islamic Republic of Iran that it must fulfill its international legal responsibility to provide full reparations to the group of countries concerned, and thus reiterate our call to negotiate in good faith and do so before the end of this year,” the international community urges.
Canada’s new Foreign Minister Melanie Jolie on Friday met her British counterpart to discuss the commitment of Canada and the United Kingdom to “seek justice while holding Iran accountable.”
Photo by Oliver Douliery, archive press
Foreign Minister Melanie Jolie
The international community insists that it “will have no choice but to seriously consider measures and other measures to resolve this issue” if Iran continues to avoid negotiating with it.
The trial of ten soldiers in this case began Sunday in Tehran.
On the night of the tragedy, Iran’s air defenses were on high alert. The Islamic Republic had just attacked a base used by the US military in Iraq in response to the removal five days ago, in a US strike in Baghdad by General Qassem Soleimani, the architect of Iran’s regional strategy, and Tehran expected a response from Washington.
In its final report on the tragedy unearthed in March, the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran (CAO) laundered its armed forces. Ukraine then denounced a “cynical attempt to conceal the real reasons”, and the Ottawa report denounced the report as “incomplete” and without “inconclusive evidence”.