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Iran offers bilateral talks with countries whose national died after Flight PS752 was shot down
heavy sanctions on the country in 2018, the picture might have worsened considerably.
The former head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, Touraj Dehghani Zanganeh, said in March last year that over 90% of flights were concentrated in only 10 airports. Half of traffic was at Mehrabad airport, Tehran, and Mashhad International airport, he noted.
Many internal flights are operated in Iran, given the country’s size and population of 84mn.
Maintaining aircraft in a good and safe condition is challenging because US sanctions block the import of required components, while they also stand in the way of the acquisition of new planes. Deals with Boeing and Airbus for the purchase of dozens of planes were wrecked by sanctions.
Iran has offered to meet bilaterally with countries whose nationals died in the accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger by Iranian armed forces just outside Tehran two years ago.
The statement outlining the offer issued on January 7 by the Iranian Foreign Ministry came after a joint announcement from Ukraine, Britain, Canada and Sweden stating that they were abandoning a two-year effort to negotiate with Tehran over reparations for the victims of the tragedy and would pursue the matter through international legal channels.
Iran concedes that a unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) brought down Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752, killing all 176 people aboard, after a technical and human error. Tensions were heightened between Tehran and the US at the time and the unit was on alert for a possible US military attack.
"Despite certain countries' illegal actions and attempts to exploit this tragic event..., Iran remains ready to negotiate bilaterally with each of the relevant states," Iran's Foreign Ministry said via state media, without explaining what illegal actions it believed other nations had committed.
However, it added that any talks should respect "sovereignty, domestic laws, and international obligations."
More than 130 of the passengers had ties to Canada. Citizens or residents of Afghanistan, Britain, Iran, Ukraine and Sweden also lost their lives when the Kyiv-bound aircraft was downed.
A Canadian court last week awarded $84mn and interest to the families of six of the victims.
The Iranian government said separately on January 7 that it has begun paying compensation to the families of those killed.
"The Transport Ministry has made transfers to a certain number of [victims'] families," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Ukrainian and Canadian officials strongly criticised the transfers, saying compensation should not be settled through unilateral declarations.
9.1.4 Transport sector news
Tehran, Nur-Sultan move to direct rail cargo on to Kazakhstan-Iran-Eur ope route to avoid Russia
The need to avoid Russia is an increasingly common objective found on the agendas of road and rail cargo operators and it was a somewhat unspoken but big topic as the railway chiefs of Iran and Kazakhstan on May 23 signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on expanding rail cooperation and establishing preferential tariffs between their two countries. Since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in late February, triggering an economic response from the West that means Russia—rather than Iran—is now the world’s most sanctioned country, cargo hauliers have sought to avoid Russian
54 IRAN Country Report June 2022 www.intellinews.com