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Iran agrees to compensate families of victims on downed plane

Sweden said on Thursday that Iran has agreed to compensate the families of victims who were killed when a Ukrainian airliner was shot down by Iranian forces outside Tehran in January, NBC News reported.

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde said the agreement had been clinched following negotiations between Iran and the countries with citizens among the victims.

“We have signed an agreement of mutual understanding that we will now negotiate with Iran about amends, compensation to the victims’ next of kin,” she was quoted as having told the Swedish news agency TT.

Linde said there was “no doubt” that Iran would follow through on the compensation. The details of any compensation remained unclear.

The Boeing 737, bound for Kiev, was hit by two ground-to-air missiles and crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran on January 8. All 176 aboard were killed.

Iran initially denied having anything to do with the crash, but US officials said early on that the plane had been shot down by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran later admitted that it had made a mistake and shot the Ukrainian plane after it flew too close to a sensitive military site and failed to respond to signals.

The crash came shortly after Iran fired ballistic missiles at two bases in Iraq that house US forces in retaliation for the US eliminating top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.

Victims aboard the Ukrainian plane included citizens of Canada, Sweden, the U.K, Afghanistan and Ukraine. Out of 176 on board, 57 were Canadians. Many of the passengers were scheduled to catch a connecting flight to Toronto.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif last week said his government would send the black boxes from the downed jetliner to France for analysis.

For months, Canada has demanded Iran send the black boxes abroad so experts can analyze the data.

Sweden’s foreign ministry, Canada’s foreign ministry, Iran’s mission at the United Nations and the State Department did not respond to requests for comment.

Source: Arutz Sheva