OREANDA-NEWS. Tehran will pay compensations for the Ukrainian passenger airplane shot down in the beginning of 2020.

This decision by the government of the country was announced by the official representative of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abbas Mousavi. “Iran has agreed to pay compensations for the plane, but the implementation of this issue will take time, it has different aspects from a technical and legal point of view,” Mousavi said.

According to a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, “many of the passengers” were citizens of Iran (some of them had dual citizenship, but Iran considers them its citizens). The diplomat also added that negotiations on the Ukrainians will continue, noting that Tehran is responsible for what happened.

Boeing 737 of Ukraine International Airlines flying from Tehran to Kiev crashed on January 8, a few minutes after departure. 9 crew members and 167 passengers died, most of them were citizens of Iran and Canada. According to the Iranian investigation, the tragedy occurred due to a mistake of the air defense systems, as a result of which, after the Ukrainian plane took off from the airport, two combat missiles were fired at it.