Talks with Iran on downed airliner constructive

“The talks ended late last night. The talks lasted 11 hours. In general, they were constructive,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a video briefing after meeting with an Iranian delegation, Reuters reported.

Kuleba said the sides had agreed on the terms of the next round of talks and that Kyiv would not allow anyone to drag out the negotiations.

Later on Friday, the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said the next round was set for October.

The Tehran-Kyiv flight was unintentionally shot down by an Iranian air defense unit shortly after taking off from Tehran on January 8, killing all 176 passengers and crew members on board.

The Iranian operator had mistaken the Boeing jetliner for a cruise missile.

The incident came as Iranian air defenses were at the highest level of alert following the country’s missile attacks against US bases in Iraq, which came in retaliation for Washington’s assassination of senior Iranian commander Lieutenant General Qasem Soleimani.