Families of Flight PS752 victims outraged that UN agency has not condemned the assault

Hamed Esmaeilion, spokesperson for the association representing the family members of the Canadians who died on the flight from Tehran to Kyiv, informed Radio Canada Worldwide that he has sent two letters to the Montreal-based mostly International Civil Aviation Business (ICAO) demanding that it condemn the assault.

Esmaeilion, whose wife Parisa and nine-12 months-aged daughter Reera died on the flight, claimed he cannot understand why the UN agency continues to be silent 6 months after an assault on a civilian airliner.

“How are they likely to stop foreseeable future assaults like this if they continue being silent?” Esmaeilion reported. “Their silence is deafening.”

It took only 3 months for the ICAO to adopt a unanimous resolution condemning, “in the strongest conditions,” the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 about eastern Ukraine, he explained.

“As opposed to the circumstance of MH17, wherever the ICAO took swift action in condemnation of the crime and entirely ventured into the ensuing investigations, Flight PS752 has been properly dismissed by your organization,” Esmaeilion wrote on Tuesday in a 2nd letter to Salvatore Sciacchitano, president of the ICAO Council, the 36-member governing physique of the UN company.

‘Mockery, misinformation, intimidation’

In the letter on behalf of the households, Esmaeilion also statements that the ICAO has “failed to obligate the Iranian governing administration to cooperate on any stage, from surrendering the black packing containers, to making it possible for global authorities to investigate the criminal offense or disclosing information and facts as to how and by whom these crimes were fully commited.”

“The entire world has witnessed practically nothing other than mockery, misinformation, intimidation and go over-up makes an attempt by the Iranian authorities,” Esmaeilion writes. “Extra alarmingly, the world has witnessed the failure of the ICAO to govern the make any difference that is foundational to the organization’s objective.”

ICAO spokesperson Anthony Philbin said the agency “extends its deepest sympathies to the family members and pals of the victims of flight PS752.”

“We regret that their grief and irritation in the experience of the worldwide diplomacy surrounding this issue has led to allegations being levied from our company with regard to matters perfectly outside of our mandate and abilities as a UN agency,” Philbin claimed in an e-mail.

ICAO is a neutral platform supporting the diplomatic interactions of its 193 member states, he added.

“In a entire world of sovereign nation states, no multilateral company or association can ‘obligate’ nations to choose actions they you should not look at to be in their nationwide self-curiosity,” Philbin said.

“As innumerable examples have demonstrated us earlier, when a region may be perceived as being deficient in its commitments and actions with respect to any of its numerous global obligations, penalties and accountability can only be regarded as, initiated and pursued by an additional sovereign place or team of sovereign nations, irrespective of whether by means of financial sanctions or other suggests.”

‘This is negligence’

In the months given that the downing of Flight PS752, the ICAO Council “has been carefully monitoring the scenario with useful updates from the collaborating states,” he additional.

Esmaeilion reported he could not recognize what was avoiding the 36-member ICAO governing council, of which Canada is a member, from having a harder line with authorities in Tehran.

“They never put any force on Iran and … they mentioned Iran has to hand more than the black containers or make clear why they are unable to do that,” Esmaeilion explained. “Why is there an ‘or’? I you should not know how they can do that. This is carelessness.”

In a phone discussion with his Iranian counterpart on Monday, Overseas Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne demanded “fast motion” from the Islamic Republic “to be certain they conduct a thorough, transparent investigation and give compensation for people,” according to a readout of the get in touch with introduced by World wide Affairs Canada.

Iran’s International Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif fully commited to sending the flight recorders to France for assessment “without even further hold off,” the readout explained.

The deadline for Iran to update the UN civil aviation agency on its motion is Friday, the readout mentioned.

“It really is nearly the last working day and we continue to have not listened to nearly anything,” Esmaeilion said. “There are flights likely to Europe from Iran each 7 days. They are not able to deliver a black box?”

Zarif also agreed to enter into negotiations for reparations and to deliver an update to Canada and the other nations that dropped citizens on the doomed flight at their upcoming assembly, the readout explained.