Canadian, UK Ministers Pay Respects to Victims of Plane Downed by Iran


LONDON, Jan 16 – Foreign ministers from Canada and Britain paid their respects on Thursday to those who died when Iran shot down an airliner last week, ahead of talks between the affected countries to discuss their response.

Canada’s Francois-Philippe Champagne and Britain’s Dominic Raab, with the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Sweden and Afghanistan, each lit a candle to commemorate the victims at the Canadian High Commission in London, and paused for a moment of reflection before the meeting began.

[aesop_image img=”https://kayhanlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2020-01-16T121909Z_340276379_RC20HE996PU6_RTRMADP_3_IRAN-CRASH-VICTIMS-scaled.jpg” panorama=”off” credit=”Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois-Philippe Champagne, Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Afghanistan’s acting Foreign Minister Idrees Zaman hold a moment of silence ahead of a meeting of the International Coordination and Response Group for the families of the victims of the Ukraine International flight which crashed in Iran, at the High Commission of Canada in London, Britain January 16, 2020. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]

The five nations had citizens on the plane, which was downed on Jan. 8 shortly after it left Tehran en route to Kiev, and have formed an international response group to co-ordinate their next steps. Ukraine and Canada have raised the prospect of legal action against Iran.

Iran admitted on Saturday it had shot down a Ukraine International Airlines plane in error, after initially denying it had a role in the incident. All 176 people aboard, including 57 Canadians, were killed.

Iran Says Its Military Shot Down Ukrainian Passenger Plane in Error

Most of those on Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 were Iranians or dual citizens, many of them students returning to their studies abroad or families on their way home after seeing relatives in Iran. Many of the victims were academics, researchers and students linked to 19 Canadian universities.


(Reporting by Alistair Smout and Will Russell; editing by Stephen Addison)