Taliban FM Visiting Iran Will Meet Opposition Figures - Sources

Jason Kung, a spokesperson of Canada’s foreign ministry said that “The families, and the victims, are at the heart of our efforts in the pursuit of transparency, justice and accountability for this tragedy.”

He added, “the Government of Canada is outraged at this refusal to negotiate from the Islamic Republic of Iran. To us, this is a clear indication that Iran plans to continue to shirk its responsibilities, thereby challenging the international rule-based order and refusing to give the families and victims the justice they deserve. We will not stand for this affront to the memories of the 176 innocent victims.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard fired two missiles at Ukrainian International Airlines flight PS752 in the morning of January 8, 2020 minutes after it took off from Tehran, downing the plane and killing all 176 people aboard. The act took place hours after Iran had fired ballistic missiles at US bases in Iraq and was expecting a possible military response, but it failed to close the civilian airspace.

Since the tragedy, Iran has refused an independent investigation and according to Ukraine and Canada that had dozens of citizens and permanent residents aboard, has not provided full and convincing answers to questions that can shed light as to what really happened.

“Canada remains committed to seeking answers and pursuing justice for this tragedy for the victims and their families. This includes working vigorously with our partners in the International Coordination and Response Group to hold Iran accountable…and ensuring that Iran makes full reparations for the harm caused to the victims, their grieving families and the affected states,” Kung told Iran International.

A Canadian court just recently awarded C$107 million ($84 million) to the families of six people who had sued Iran. More court cases are pending in Canada.

Iran has said it would pay $150,000 per victim to families, but many say what they really want is the truth of who is responsible for the tragedy. Tehran, meanwhile, has said that senior officials cannot be legally held responsible.

Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Ukraine which are four countries with the greatest number of victims have formed the International Coordination and Response Group to support families of victims of flight PS752. They announced this week that seeing intransigence by Iran, they will pursue the case according to international law.

“Moving forward, the group will focus on subsequent actions to resolve this matter in accordance with international law. At this time, we cannot comment on the specifics of our legal strategy,” the Canadian official said.

The Iranian foreign ministry updated the sanction list on Saturday, adding numerous new names to its previous version that had already included former president Donald Trump, former CIA directors Mike Pompeo and Gina Haspel, former UN envoy John Bolton, former defense secretaries Mark Esper and Christopher C. Miller as well as a few other officials.

Among the new names are Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, CENTCOM chief Kenneth F. McKenzie, Central Security Service chief Paul Nakasone, former national security advisors Matthew Pottinger and Keith Kellogg, and many other people from the military.

According to the statement, all of the people mentioned in the list had some role in the decision-making, planning, organizing, financing, directing or carrying out the strike that killed Soleimani at Baghdad airport in January 2020.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Supreme Leader Ali Khamene have time and again vowed revenge for the killing of Soleimani.

Soleimani, who was Iran’s top military and intelligence operator outside its borders, was in charge of supporting and organizing militant proxy forces, including the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraq Shiite militia groups that have repeatedly attacked US forces.

WSJ that had access to a reportby United Nations experts said that Jask port on the Sea of Oman was used by Iran to ship the weapons on small wooden ships. The United States believes these vessels manage somehow to deliver their cargoes to the Houthis under blockade by Saudi Arabia, and also to Somalia.

The United States has made a few seizures on the high seas, each including thousands of small arms and equipment made in China, Iran, Russia, Belarus and elsewhere. In December the US stopped a vessel and seized 1,400 AK-47 assault rifles and 226,600 rounds of ammunition.

The news comes as the United States and other world power are engaged in nuclear talks with Iran in Vienna. Regional countries have been insisting that any new agreement with Iran should include limits to its disruptive regional activities.

The Biden Administration, although acknowledging Iran’s “malign behavior”, believes it must first reach a nuclear agreement in exchange for lifting sanctions. Critics say that once Iran is free to sell its oil and get the desperately needed foreign currencies, it will never make concessions on other issues.

The spokesman of Taliban’s ministry of foreign affairs, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said in a tweet on Saturday afternoon that Muttaqi’s first official visit was upon an invitation from Iran.

During the stay, the Taliban delegation is slated to discuss a wide range of political and economic topics as well as issues related to the transit of goods and Afghan refugees.

Before departing for Tehran, the Afghan delegation held a preliminary meeting in the 19th Century Storai Palace, to assess their agenda of their visit to Iran.

In December, Iran proposed that Muslim states establish a joint fund to help stabilize Afghanistan and prevent a serious crisis from impacting other regional countries.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian at the time also stated that sustainable calm in Afghanistan is only possible through an inclusive and effective government in which all ethnic and religious groups would be present.

Tehran insists that despite an economic crisis due to US sanctions, it has accepted more than 300,000 Afghan refugees following the collapse of the government in Kabul. However, the International Organization for Migration said in November that Iranian and Pakistani authorities have sent back more than one million Afghan refugees this year.

Videos published on social media on Saturday show groups of workers on strike and protesting in front of the provincial offices and departments of the Judiciary in several cities.

Quite ironically, the protesters are chanting slogans asking for justice.

There are also reports of strikes by judicial staff and judges in capital Tehran that is expected to last about a week.

In some cities, the employees of the Judiciary have started to resign from their jobs en masse, with photos of their collective resignation letterscirculating in twitter.

The nationwide protests were triggered following the rejection of a special plan to increase salaries for the judiciary staff by the parliament a few days ago.

People with different professions are holding regular protest rallies to demand better work conditions and salaries with teachers holding the largest number of demonstrations.

Food prices have risen by more than 60 percent this year, on top of high inflation in the previous three years. Government figures show that prices for 83 percent of basic food staples have reached a critical level. People living on salaries have cut back on consumption of nutritious food, such as meat, fruits and dairy products.