Iran to Pay Compensation for the Downed UIA Plane

Iran will have to pay compensation for the Ukrainian Airlines plane shot down in the skies over Tehran in January of this year. Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine YevhenYenin wrote about this on his Facebook page.

According to him, during bilateral talks in Kyiv, the Iranian side reaffirmed its readiness to reimburse the losses, including those of  UIA, whose representatives were invited by Ukraine to the meeting.

“We agreed to include this issue in the agenda of the next round of negotiations… The plane was insured with one of the European insurance companies, which in turn reinsured its risks with other insurers. Accordingly, Iran will have to compensate UIA’s losses, if not directly, then in recourse to the relevant insurance companies, but it will still be about the same compensation,, the Deputy Minister explained.

His words were in response to a statement by the Head of Iran’s Central Insurance Organization, Golamrez Soleimani, who said that his country refused to pay compensation to the Ukrainian airline for the downed liner.

“The Ukrainian plane is insured by European companies in Ukraine, not Iranian ones. That is why those European companies have to pay compensation,” Soleimani said.

At the same time, it was emphasised that this comment concerned only the aircraft and not the potential compensation to the families of the victims. European aviation insurers have not yet commented on these statements.

It should be recalled that the Ukrainian airline’s aircraft was shot down by the Iranian military immediately after departure from Tehran airport. Iran has claimed responsibility for the disaster and agreed to pay compensation to the families of all those killed.

Bohdan Marusyak