Iran’s offer of $150,000 for the families of each of the 176 victims of a Ukrainian airline shot down by missiles over Tehran received a lukewarm response.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada, where most of the passengers lived, worked or studied, said the decision on Wednesday, announced days before the anniversary of the tragedy, would not deter bereaved relatives from seeking justice.
Five nations representing the victims of the crash would continue discussions among themselves about the appropriate compensation for the families.
Iran claimed the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accidentally shot down the Ukraine International Airlines jet on January 8 after it was mistaken for an American cruise missile.
The shooting down occurred five days after the US assassinated Qassem Suleimani, a top IRGC commander, in a drone strike in Iraq.
Iran said it sent its final report on the crash to countries involved in the investigation, which would include Ukraine.
But the ambassador, Andriy Shevchenko, told The National that Ukraine had not yet received a draft or final version of the report.
Under civil aviation guidelines, a final report should be published within a year of an accident so lessons could be learnt to prevent similar tragedies.
The compensation offer was agreed to at a meeting of Iran’s Cabinet on Wednesday.
“The Cabinet approved the provision of $150,000 or the equivalent in euros as soon as possible to the families and survivors of each of the victims of the Ukrainian plan crash,” the official Irna news agency reported.
Mr Shevchenko said: “We would still expect Iran to co-ordinate and co-operate with our nations on the issue of the financial compensation.
"This Iranian decision does not change anything for us. We are very focused on finding a co-ordinated solution between the five countries affected and Iran.”
“There should be a very clear multilateral decision that would be accepted by everyone and everyone would be in agreement with.”
