OTTAWA—Ottawa concedes that the probe into Iran's downing of an Ukrainian airlines flight has “slowed down” as federal officials try to pressure Iran to turn over the jet's black boxes for analysis.

It’s been a month since missiles fired by the Iranian military brought down Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 over Tehran and yet the aircraft’s recorders have not been processed, defying international protocols that dictate that they be analyzed as soon as possible following an accident.

On Tuesday, a frustrated federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau wrote Mohammad Eslami, Iran’s minister of roads and urban development, following up on a telephone conversation the two had Monday.

“That’s the point that I made very strongly (Monday) to the Iranians, that the world is looking,” Garneau told reporters following a cabinet meeting.

“I told him we did not believe they have the necessary expertise and equipment in order to do the analysis and the decoding of the boxes which may be damaged and I encouraged them ... to look at the option of sending them to France,” he said.

While the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder are said to have been significantly damaged, they could still provide critical clues about the flight, which was shot down just minutes after it departed Tehran bound for Kyiv. Of the 176 people on board, 138 — including 57 Canadian citizens and 29 permanent residents — were headed to Canada.

“There are requirements to analyze these boxes as quickly as possible,” Garneau said.

“I think it’s just a question of the decision making process that’s going on internally within Iran and we are encouraging them to speed that up,” he said.

This week’s exchanges with Iran follow a Friday meeting Garneau and Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne had with Salvatore Sciacchitano, president of the International Civil Aviation Organization Council, one of the governing bodies of the Montreal-based agency responsible for setting aviation standards.

ICAO’s recommended practices for accident probes state that the nation leading the investigation shall arrange for the readout of the flight recorders “without delay.”

That meeting was to ask the ICAO to encourage Iran to follow the international standards for the “timely analysis of the black boxes,” one federal official told the Star, speaking on background.

ICAO confirmed Tuesday that Canada has been in touch about access to the flight recorder data. “Our council president is conveying a letter to Iran’s civil aviation authority to confirm this is the case, and to remind it of its relevant obligations,” agency spokesperson William Raillant-Clark said in an email.

The delay was a focus of a Monday conference call among representatives of the nations that had citizens on the flight, including Canada, Afghanistan and the United Kingdom. The government group was formed to help give voice to the concerns of family members who lost loved ones in the crash.

According to a summary provided by the Global Affairs, the group called on Iran to release the black boxes immediately as a “demonstration of continued willingness to have a full and transparent account of this event.”

The group also pledged to find common ground on legal options for negotiations with Iran on compensation to the families.

Despite Iran’s foot-dragging over the black boxes, Garneau downplayed concerns that tensions between Ukraine and Iran would derail the investigation.

Iran has reportedly stopped sharing information with Ukraine after Ukrainian media reported on air traffic control recordings that suggested that officials knew immediately that at least one missile had struck the jet.

Garneau said the investigation has “slowed down” but insisted it was still “going to go forward.

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“I have assurances of that from Iran,” he said.

Garneau noted that in the aftermath of the crash, Iran did allow two investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada to visit the crash site and examine wreckage. The board has also offered its expertise to help process the black boxes.

“Iran started off on a very good footing. We need them to continue on that footing especially with respect to the analysis of the black boxes. We’re going to continue pushing it. I’m confident that it’s going to happen,” he said.

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