TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday held talks with foreign officials, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
In a statement read in Munich Security Conference, Zarif said the two sides “exchanged views on issues of mutual interest”.
According to the Canadian Press, Trudeau joined the scheduled bilateral meeting between the foreign ministers to reinforce Canada’s demands for “transparent investigation” into how a Ukrainian jetliner crashed near Tehran moments after takeoff.
The Ukraine International Airlines plane went down on January 8 after it was “unintentionally” targeted by Iranian air defense, killing all 176 people on board.
The plane, en route to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, was carrying 176 people from several countries, including 57 Canadians.
Iran has said it aims to analyze the black boxes of the Ukrainian airliner, rejecting requests from Ukraine and Canada to send them abroad for examination.
Champagne said Friday’s meeting moved the needle on progress to get Iran to ship the recorders to France which has the necessary equipment to analyze the contents of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders.
Zarif also attended a separate meeting with his Finnish counterpart Pekka Haavisto as well as Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek.
In another meeting, Zarif held talks with the representatives of The Elders, an international non-governmental organization that was founded by anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela.
The 56th Munich Security Conference kicked off in the southern German city of Munich on Friday and runs through Sunday.
The annual conference, known as the “Davos” of global security and political events, has been an important forum for top officials to discuss major issues facing the world since its inception in 1963.
The theme this year is “Westlessness,” the loss of the common standing of what it means to be part of the West.
- source : Iran Daily, Irannews
