Iran, fully cooperating on crashed plane: Ukraine FM

The Ukrainian Foreign Minister has stated that Iran has been fully cooperating on the crashed plane.

Iran Press/Iran news: The Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko announced on Friday evening that the Iranian side is fully cooperating on the crash investigation.

Prystaikoe added: "The Iranian side has allowed us to know about the black box information and we must be careful about the uncertainties surrounding the crash."

"The Iranian side has allowed us to investigate parts of the crashed aircraft and we intend to reach an agreement with them on where to extract black box information."

"We are working to establish an international team to conduct investigations about the crash," the Ukrainian Foreign Minister said, adding: "There is no evidence in the wreckage of the plane to support the hypothesis that the plane was shot down by terrorist operations."

Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov rejected Western countries' claims that the Iranian air defense missile had shot down the Ukrainian plane.

Urging officials around the world to refrain from judging the reasons for the crash before revealing more details, Ryabkov said Moscow has no reason to blame Iran for the crash. 

The plane belonging to Ukrainian airlines crashed near Tehran minutes after the take-off from Imam Khomeini Airport after its engine caught fire. All the 167 passengers and 9 crew members were killed in the crash.

During the past 15 months, two crashes involving the US Boeing Max 737 plane occurred, calling into question the safety of this kind of airplane.

In March 2019, more than 157 people were killed in a crash of a Boeing Max 737 belonging to the Ethiopian Airlines. Also, 189 people were killed due to the crash of a Boeing Max 737 belonging to Indonesian airline in October 2018.

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