Iran must compensate crash victims families, Canada-led group agrees

OTTAWA – Canada and other countries are demanding compensation from Iran for the families of people killed when Iranian forces shot down an airliner leaving Tehran last week.

That’s one of five elements in an agreement coming out of a meeting Canada hosted in London Thursday, with representatives from Britain, Sweden, Afghanistan and Ukraine.

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne, said Iran has a choice to make.

“They’ve taken the first step, was to admit full responsibility and cooperate, and like I said, from that follows a number of demands, which are just, logically, from the admission of responsibility, which is allow us to go to the bottom of things,” he told a news conference in London. “Make sure that we can get the truth, make sure that we get all the facts.”

The participating countries are also calling for Iran to respect families’ wishes on repatriating the remains of the 176 people killed when the plane came down, full access for consular officials and investigators, and an independent and credible criminal investigation, conducted with “dignity, transparency, and according to international standards.”

“I would think that Iran has a choice, and the world is watching. It’s not just the grieving nation, it’s not just the aggrieved families, it’s not just the loved ones — it’s the families in Iran as well. But it’s also, importantly, the international community.”

Champagne added the countries whose citizens died are judging Iran’s co-operation day by day.

Among the 176 people killed were 57 Canadians and 82 Iranian nationals.

Tehran admitted this week that an Iranian missile hit Ukrainian International Airlines flight PS752 shortly before it went down. Iran is leading the investigation because the crash occurred on its soil, but there are precedents for handing that responsibility over to another country that suffered losses.

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