KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th January, 2021) Afghanistan, Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom on Friday jointly pledged to prosecute Iran over last year's downing of a Ukrainian Boeing 737 that claimed the lives of their citizens.
The joint statement was issued on the first anniversary of the downing of Ukraine International Airlines' (UIA) Boeing aircraft by the member states of International Coordination and Response Group for the victims of Flight PS752.
"Our countries will hold Iran to account to deliver justice and make sure Iran makes full reparations to the families of the victims and affected countries," the statement said.
The countries also called on Iran to submit a thorough report on the events that preceded the crash and the precautionary measure made by Tehran to prevent such incidents in the future.
"We urgently call on Iran to provide a complete and thorough explanation of the events and decisions that led to this appalling plane crash, including concrete measures to ensure that it will never happen again," the statement said.
The foreign ministers of the countries affected by the incident said that they expected formal negotiations with Iran on the matter to start soon.
"Now, we are in the final stage of our arrangements and we expect to enter formal negotiations with Iran soon," the ministers said as quoted by the Ukrainian media outlet Evropeyskaya Pravda.
On January 8, a Boeing 737 operated by Ukraine International Airlines crashed soon after departing from an airport in Tehran. Citizens of Iran, Canada, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom were among the 176 passengers and crew who died. The black boxes from the downed aircraft were sent to France in July for decoding.
The Iranian authorities said that the jet had been unintentionally shot down after military personnel confused it with a hostile target amid fears of US strikes. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said that Tehran was ready to pay compensation for the incident.
