Canada, Sweden pave way for compensation talks with Iran on downed plane

Canada announced Thursday an agreement to launch negotiations with Iran on compensation for the families of the foreign victims of a Ukrainian passenger plane shot down in January, with Sweden expressing confidence Tehran would pay. An international "coordination and response group" of countries whose nationals died on the plane signed a memorandum of understanding, formally paving the way for negotiations with Tehran, according to a Canadian government statement. The countries -- Canada, Britain, Ukraine, Sweden and Afghanistan -- each had citizens die when Tehran's armed forces mistakenly shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752. "The five states created the legal structure necessary to start these negotiations," Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told AFP. "It is a first step -- necessary but only a first step -- to begin negotiations to obtain reparations for the victims' families," he said. Earlier in the day, Sweden's Foreign Minister Ann Linde told news agency TT that Tehran had agreed to compensate the families of foreign victims.<br/>