Iran said on Monday that the Covid-19 had slowed down its plans to transmit the black boxes of the Ukrainian plane abroad that its forces shot down by mistake in January over Tehran. "From the first days of this painful incident, we announced our availability to cooperate in the examination of the black boxes of the Ukrainian plane," said government spokesman Ali Rabii. There is nothing on our side to hide. "
“If it is possible to read them in Ukraine (…) it will be done in Ukraine. Otherwise, the black boxes will be read in France, ”added Ali Rabii, during a televised press conference in Tehran. The spokesperson said that the process had been involuntarily slowed by the pandemic of new coronavirus which resulted in the cancellation of most international flights. "We will resume this process [of sending the black boxes] with the gradual resumption of international flights and the clarification of the results of the negotiations" between Iran and the other parties concerned, said Ali Rabii.
Iranian armed forces admitted on January 11 that they had “mistakenly” shot down three days earlier the Boeing providing PS 752 for Ukraine International Airlines between Tehran and Kiev shortly after takeoff, killing 176 people on board the aircraft. Iran's air defenses were on high alert after the Islamic Republic fired missiles at an Iraqi base sheltering American soldiers to avenge powerful Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, killed in an American drone strike in Baghdad on January 3.
Transfer the black boxes to Ukraine or France
The black boxes should contain information about the final moments before the aircraft was struck by two surface-to-air missiles and crashed. Significant numbers of those aboard the plane were Canadian. Ottawa has therefore been demanding for months that Iran, which does not have the technical means to extract and decrypt data from black boxes, transmits them abroad for analysis.
In March, after Tehran announced that it was ready to transfer the black boxes to Ukraine or France, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, François-Philippe Champagne, spoke of "a step in the right direction". However, he added that he would judge the Iranian authorities on "their actions and not their words".
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