All 176 people on board were killed when Ukrainian passenger jet PS752 was hit by two Iranian-fired missiles shortly after take-off on 8 January.
Iran's deputy foreign minister, Mohsen Baharvand, told ILNA media that the black boxes were transported to Paris on Friday, accompanied by Iranian civil aviation and judicial officials, and would be read on Monday.
The victims came from seven countries, including 82 Iranians, 55 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians.
Iran has been in intense negotiations with Ukraine, Canada and other nations whose citizens died in the crash and who have demanded a thorough investigation into the incident.
Iran maintains it was the product of human error, which families of the victims in Ukraine and Canada in particular, refute.
Today we mourn 298 innocent victims of the #MH17 flight. 6 years of unbearable pain for their relatives & close ones, multiplied by Russian denials, lies & fakes. I‘m confident the criminal trial will bring justice, establishing each criminal responsible for the murder by name. pic.twitter.com/nL7nNagGqF
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) July 17, 2020
'Unforgiveable mistake'
Iran initially denied responsibility for the crash, insisting it was due to engine failure.
But a few days later the country admitted responsibility, after Western intelligence officials said evidence pointed to Iranian involvement.
Teheran said it had mistaken the Ukraine International Airlines flight for a cruise missile.
President Hassan Rohani described the error as an "unforgivable mistake".
Iran's air defences had been on high alert at the time, amid heightened tension in the region.
Hours before the crash, the country had launched ballistic missiles at two US military bases in Iraq in response to a US drone strike that killed Iranian general al Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.
French expertise
The black box contains the very latest data and communications from the cockpit, crucial in determining what happened.
Iran had delayed its release after disagreements with countries who lost citizens over where it should be decoded.
Under global aviation regulations, Iran is entitled to lead the investigation, but manufacturers would usually be involved.
Iran had refused, however, to release the black box to the US, where manufacturer Boeing is based.
Despite the fact no French citizens were among the dead, Iranian authorities have called on French technical assistance.
Experts at the BEA (French Air Accident Research Centre) in Le Bourget north of Paris, will set about analysing the recordings on Monday.
“BEA’s laboratory is very modern, complete and efficient,” Alain de Valence, a legal expert who worked with BEA on the 2009 Rio-Paris crash and 2014 Air Algérie crash in Mali, told Le Parisien.
BEA deals with some 100 French investigations each year, but is also regularly called upon to help in international enquiries. In 2017, it conducted some 279 foreign enquiries.
Canada and Ukraine are to send their own experts to take part in the investigation.
