Grieving nations' to discuss legal action against Iran over downed airliner: Ukraine

Five countries whose citizens were killed when an airliner was shot down by Iran last week will meet in London on Thursday to discuss possible legal action, Ukraine's foreign minister said. Vadym Prystaiko said the five nations would also discuss compensation and the investigation into the incident. In Kiev, Ukraine's top security official said a senior Iranian investigator would visit the Ukrainian capital in the coming days to determine whether a Ukrainian laboratory is suitable to decode the plane's black box flight recorders. Prystaiko said suggestions from Iran that the plane was shot down as it flew near a sensitive military base during a time of heightened tensions were "nonsense". "We have created this group of foreign ministers from the grieving nations. On Jan 16, we will meet in person in London to discuss the ways, including legal, how we are following this up, how we are prosecuting them (Iran)," Prystaiko said. He said the five nations also included Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan and a fifth country which he did not name. Canada has previously said these four countries and Britain had established a coordination group to support victims' families. Many on board were Iranians with dual citizenship. After days of denials, Iran said on Saturday its military had shot down the plane in a "disastrous mistake".<br/>