Airbus Payments Must Await Court Ruling, Iran Says
Iran’s top aviation official said Friday that U.S. offers of compensation for the Airbus tragedy could be considered only after the World Court had censured Washington for shooting down the plane.
The Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Mohammed Nabi Habibi, head of the Civil Aviation Organization, as saying Iran is determined to pursue the case filed in May at the Court of International Justice “to bring the United States to justice.”
Washington offered Monday to pay up to $250,000 to relatives of the 290 people killed when the U.S. cruiser Vincennes shot down the plane over the Persian Gulf in July, 1988, after mistaking it for an attacking fighter.
In Iran’s first official reaction, Habibi dismissed the offer as a “preventive measure” against Iran’s suit at The Hague.
Iran might accept compensation “only after Washington is judicially and legally condemned for its crime,” he said.
Tehran branded the attack on the Airbus in July last year as cold-blooded murder.
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