Originally Posted by
DaveReidUK
It's not a question of "witholding" access to the recorders.
Annex 13 requires that "the State conducting the investigation shall arrange for the read-out of the flight recorders without delay". It goes on to recommend that if the investigating state doesn't have that capability, it should use the facilities made available to it by other states, taking into account the capabilities and location of the facility in question and the likely timescale.
No third party has an automatic right to demand access to the FDR or CVR. In the unlikely event that the Iranians take up the US offer of assistance in this area, it would be the NTSB that reads the recorders. More likely, as alluded to above, it will be the BEA or BFU (or maybe even the AAIB).
Yes, absolutely. I didn't mean to suggest that Iran was under an obligation to share.