The Anti-Christ

TEHRAN – Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Mohsen Baharvand expounded on Tehran’s viewpoints and activities regarding the 2020 Ukrainian plane crash at a meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), according to a statement issued by the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

Baharvand made his comments in a detailed speech at the 223rd Session of the ICAO Council.

In his speech, Baharvand once again expressed regret over the tragic event and expressed condolences to the families of victims while elaborating on the legal, judicial and technical dimensions of the accident.

He reiterated that the Iranian government will pay damages to the families of those who lost their lives in the plane crash.

The diplomat highlighted Iran’s recommendations mentioned in the final report on the air accident and said he was pleased to see ICAO had paid attention to them and drawn up working plans to implement those recommendations.

He welcomed any initiative or program to boost the safety of international aviation.

In response to politically-tainted and unprofessional comments by the Canadian transport minister in the session, Baharvand warned against any moves to politicize the issue.

The Iranian diplomat said such moves or any other pretext or justification will not only not help enhance the safety of aviation, but will result in deviation from the technical objectives of ICAO and safe air transport.

The chairman of the ICAO Council and delegations present at the session, for their part, expressed their gratitude to the Iranian team and underlined that the air crash issue was a technical and non-political one.

In early June, Baharvand participated in the third round of Iran-Ukraine talks in Kyiv over the plane crash.

After the talks, he told Iran Press that a detailed legal discussion had taken place, and the Iranian court had jurisdiction to hear the case of the Ukrainian plane crash because it was inside Iran.

“The indictment in the case of the Ukrainian plane crash has been issued in an Iranian court, and three judges are examining the case, and if there is a shortcoming in this regard, it will be dealt with according to the law,” Bahrvand noted.

He pointed out that military investigations, judicial investigations, and investigations by Iranian aviation specialists, in collaboration with an ICAO advisory group and experts from the U.S. and UK, showed that human error caused the crash.

Baharvand underlined that the compensation set by Iran to pay the families of the victims was much higher than what is stated in international law.

He said the Iranian government had agreed to pay $150,000 for each victim, whether Iranian or foreigner, which some families have received as compensation.

“Politicizing specialized issues hurts everyone because there are aviation standards, whoever abuses politics, the whole international community suffers; the political use of specialized issues causes a country like Canada to commercialize the grief of bereaved families and the blood of victims,” he added.

He announced Iran’s readiness to cooperate in any way, provided that the authority of the Islamic Republic would be recognized and the sovereignty and immunity of the Iranian government would be respected.

SM/PA