Ukraine won't allow Iran to evade responsibility for downed plane - foreign minister
KYIV. April 7 (Interfax) - Kyiv will not allow Tehran to evade responsibility for downing the Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) flight in January and is awaiting official explanations of the statement of an Iranian parliament member that "the Iranian military did well by downing the passenger plane," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
"The embassy has sent a note requesting official explanations of the Iranian stance. [...] We need to rely on official information. We will draw relevant conclusions after we receive official information from Iran. However, we will never allow Iran to evade responsibility for the tragedy and will be working with it in order to acquire the black boxes. [...] We will not be acting alone, instead, we will pool efforts with our partners, first and foremost Canada," Kuleba said on the national television.
According to the television channel Al Arabiya, a representative of the Iranian Parliament's Legal and Judicial Commission, Hassan Norouzi, said that "the Iranian military did well by downing the passenger plane."
UIA flight PS752 performed by a Boeing 737-800 on the route from Tehran to Kyiv crashed in the vicinity of Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport soon after takeoff on January 8. None of the 167 passengers and nine crewmembers survived the crash.
Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Aerospace Forces Amir Ali Hajizadeh assumed full responsibility for the crash of the Ukrainian plane.