TEHRAN – Iran’s ambassador to Ukraine has said that compensation for the Ukrainian plane which was downed mistakenly near Tehran in January 2020 will be based on international regulations.

“As it was raised in recent constructive and fruitful negotiations in #Kyiv, any compromise on compensation will be just based on the international regulations and is according to commitments of conventions in which I.R. #Iran is a member,” Manouchehr Moradi tweeted on Saturday.

The chief of Iran’s Central Insurance Organization announced on August 10 that the Ukrainian plane had been insured by European insurers and therefore they should pay for incident.

“The Ukrainian plane is insured by European companies in Ukraine and not by Iranian companies, therefore the compensation should be paid by those European companies,” Gholamreza Soleimani told a press conference, the Mizan online reported.

The Ukrainian airliner was shot down shortly after taking off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport on January 8, killing all 167 passengers and 9 crew members.

On January 11, the Armed Forces General Staff released a statement saying the plane was mistakenly downed near the airport. 

The incident happened a few hours after Iran fired dozens of ballistic missiles at a U.S. airbase inside Iraq in retaliation for the assassination of top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani.

The airplane had been mistaken for an invading missile.

The victims of the crash included 82 Iranians, 63 Iranian-Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans, and three British nationals.

Last month, Iranian and Ukrainian officials held talks on the compensation, with another round set for October.

Deputy Foreign Minister for International and Legal Affairs Mohsen Baharvand said last week that next round of talks over the incident will be held in Tehran.

NA/PA