Heading an Iranian delegation, Eslami traveled to Kyiv on Monday to meet and hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko on the unintentional downing of the Ukrainian plane on Jan. 8.
Ukraine would convey the message to visiting Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami, that returning the black boxes would show that Iran wanted an unbiased investigation of the crash, Prystaiko said.
“His main task is to apologize and acknowledge what happened. We hope that we can go a little further than just political discussions and discuss practical problems. Among them, in particular, is the return of the black boxes,” he said.
“At first they stated that they were handing them over, then the same person stated that they were not handing them over. This created some misunderstanding in Ukraine and we were starting to be asked: are they being handed over or not?" he added.
Carrying 167 passengers and nine crewmembers, Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 crashed outside Iran’s capital last Wednesday, moments following takeoff from the city’s Imam Khomeini airport, after being mistakenly identified by Iranian air defenses with an incoming cruise missile.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic later identified the cause of the incident as human error.
MNA/FNA 13981030000665