(Montreal) Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Ukraine denounced on Wednesday Tehran’s refusal to negotiate compensation for the families of the victims of flight PS752, shot down almost two years ago by an Iranian missile .
“We, the ministers representing Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Ukraine, express our deep disappointment that the Islamic Republic of Iran has not accepted our multiple requests for a meeting on the 22nd. November 2021 ”, we read in a press release presenting the joint declaration of the four countries.
On January 8, 2020, Iranian armed forces shot down the Boeing operating Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) flight PS752 between Tehran and Kiev shortly after takeoff.
Iran did not admit the facts until three days later saying it had shot down the aircraft “by mistake”.
The tragedy claimed the lives of 176 people on board the plane, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.
“We remind the Islamic Republic of Iran that it must fulfill its international legal responsibility to make full reparations to the group of countries concerned, and therefore reiterate our call to negotiate in good faith and to do so. before the end of this year ”, urges the international group.
On Friday, the new Canadian Foreign Minister, Mélanie Joly, met with her British counterpart to discuss the commitment of Canada and the United Kingdom “to seek justice while holding Iran accountable”.
PHOTO OLIVIER DOULIERY, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly
The international group maintains that it “will have no choice but to seriously consider other actions and measures to resolve this issue” if Iran continues to avoid negotiating with it.
The trial of ten soldiers in this case opened 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 elimination five days earlier, in an American strike in Baghdad, by General Qassem Soleimani, architect of Iran’s regional strategy, and Tehran expected a response from Washington.
In its final report on the tragedy unveiled in March, the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) laundered its armed forces. Ukraine then denounced a “cynical attempt to hide the real causes” and Ottawa a report “incomplete” and without “hard evidence”.