FM Zarif’s Aide Meets Families of Afghans Killed in Ukraine Plane Crash

Seyyed Rasoul Mousavi, an assistant to Iran’s foreign minister and the director-general of the Foreign Ministry’s West Asia Department, had a meeting with the families of some of the Afghan martyrs of the Ukrainian plane crash.

During the Friday meetings, the Iranian official expressed the Foreign Ministry’s sympathy and condolences to the survivors of the victims.

He also visited the tombs of three victims who have been buried right next to the martyrs of the war imposed by Saddam Hussein on Iran as well as the Defenders of the Shrine in a holy shrine in Pishva of Varamin, south of Tehran.

Mousavi later attended a commemoration ceremony held for another victim of the plane crash in Varamin’s Firouzabad village.

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 (PS752) was a scheduled international passenger flight from Tehran to Kiev operated by Ukraine International Airlines (UIA). On 8 January 2020, the Boeing 737-800 operating the route was shot down shortly after take-off from Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport. All the 176 passengers and crew were killed.

According to Iranian officials, 146 passengers used an Iranian passport to leave the country, ten used an Afghan passport, five used a Canadian one, four a Swedish one, and two used Ukrainian passports.

The Ukrainian government, however, says there were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians (mostly Iranian-Canadian dual nationals), 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, 7 Afghans, and 3 Britons on the plane, which was accidentally shot down by Iran’s Air Defence.