Iran, Ukraine begin new round of talks over Ukrainian plane crash

Tehran, Oct 20 (IANS) Iran and Ukraine began a new round of talks over the issues of the Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed over the Iranian space earlier this year, official IRNA news agency reported.The three-day meeting in Tehran, co-chaired by Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Mohsen Baharvand and Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgheniy Yenin, will focus on technical, judicial and legal aspects of the incident, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.Iran "is transparent over the incident and has nothing to hide in this regard," Baharvand was quoted by IRNA as saying on the first day of the meeting.Iran is determined to "take fair steps and pay compensation to the families of victims," he added.On Saturday, Baharvand said Iran "will try to conclude the negotiations (over the issue) in the shortest time possible." The Ukrainian passenger plane was hit by Iranian missiles after taking off in Tehran on January 8, killing all 176 on board. Iran said its forces "accidentally" shot the plane down.On July 24, an international team in Paris completed preliminary investigative analysis of the data extracted from the black boxes of the plane.On August 22, Touraj Dehqani Zangeneh, head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization, announced Iran's readiness to pay compensation pertaining to the Ukrainian passenger plane accident.
--IANS int/