TEHRAN - A high ranking Ukrainian delegation held talks with Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council in Tehran, discussing the issues surrounding the Ukrainian passenger plane which was mistakenly downed by the Iranian military near Tehran on January 8.

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), headed the Ukrainian delegation.

The Ukrainian passenger plane, with 176 people aboard, was mistaken for an invading missile. The tragic incident happened a few hours after Iran fired missiles at a U.S. airbase in Iraq in retaliation for the January 3 assassination of General Qassem Soleimani. Following the retaliation attack, the Iranian military had been put on high alert. 

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

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko met on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) on Saturday and discussed the incident.

IRNA reported on Saturday that the top officials exchanged views on cooperation in investigating the incident.

On Friday, Zarif also met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne.

According to the website of Canada’s Foreign Ministry, the two agreed to remain in close touch over the issue of the plane crash.

“The two also discussed the download and analysis of PS752’s black boxes. Minister Champagne reiterated that the preferred option of the International Coordination and Response Group is for Iran to make use of the facilities offered by France, which possesses the technical capacity to perform this work. Minister Champagne also stressed the importance of a fair and equitable compensation settlement for the families of the victims, based on international standards,” the website reported.

NA/PA