U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed his sadness Friday on the airplane crash in Iran that killed at least 28 people, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. On the eve of his visit to the country, the secretary-general's thoughts are with the families of the victims of this tragedy, Dujarric told reporters. Annan will be traveling to Iran this weekend. Annan is currently in the Middle East on a tour to get Arab help on implementing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which halted one month of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel. Dujarric said that the secretary-general would be meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Saturday and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday to discuss resolution 1701, but did not rule out that other topics would be discussed, such as Iran's defiance of the Security Council on its controversial nuclear program. The airliner, leaving the southern town of Bandar Abbas, was headed to Mashad, a popular Shia pilgrimage destination in the northeast part of the country. The airplane left the runway and caught on fire. Authorities believe that the fire started when one of the tires burst.
