Iran must face arbitration to settle downing of Flight 752: response group – National | 24CA News

Canada, Britain, Sweden and Ukraine on Wednesday known as on Tehran to settle a dispute over accountability and reparations for the downing of an airliner by Iranian forces almost three years in the past by way of arbitration underneath the principles of the 1971 Montreal Convention.

All 4 international locations in addition to Iran are signatories of the conference, a global treaty which requires states to forestall and punish offenses towards civil aviation. If the international locations can’t settle their dispute inside six months, Iran may be taken to the International Court of Justice.

Most of the 176 individuals killed when Iran shot down the Ukrainian jet close to Tehran in January 2020 had been residents from these 4 international locations, which created a co-ordination group that seeks to carry Iran to account.

“We … have taken concrete action today to ensure that our efforts to hold Iran to account for the unlawful downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 can progress to the dispute settlement phase,” the international locations mentioned in a joint assertion.

“In particular, we have requested that Iran submits to binding arbitration of the dispute … pursuant to Article 14 of the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation of 1971,” they mentioned.

Direct talks with Iran broke down earlier this yr when the co-ordination group mentioned its makes an attempt to resolve the matter by way of negotiations had been “futile.”

Iran says Revolutionary Guards unintentionally shot down the Boeing 737 jet and blamed a misaligned radar and an error by the air protection operator at a time when tensions had been excessive between Tehran and Washington.

At the time, Iran was on edge about doable assaults after it fired missiles at Iraqi bases housing U.S. forces in retaliation for the killing days earlier than of its strongest navy commander, Qassem Soleimani, in a U.S. missile strike at Baghdad airport.

Ottawa has mentioned a particular Canadian forensic crew charged with analyzing all out there details about the incident discovered no proof that the downing of the airplane had been premeditated.