Kourosh Ziabari: Who pays for the loss of life in Iran?
08. Sep, 2010
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Kourosh Ziabari
Since the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979 which toppled the U.S.-backed regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran has been facing with the devastating and agonizing financial sanctions of the United States and its European allies who didn’t favor the post-revolutionary Iran’s doctrine of confrontation with the superpowers and its denial of Western liberal democratic values.
The 1979 revolution which put an end to 2,500 years of imperial monarchy in Iran was pivoted on theocratic and ideological values which the sumptuous, thrilling West usually tends to dislike and rebuff. Under the spiritual leadership of Imam Khomeini, Iranians declared that they wouldn’t need the support of Western and Eastern superpowers, will stand on their own feet and only seek to realize a political regime which establishes its bases and principles in accordance with morality and Islamic solidarity.
Iran’s ideological disagreement with the West and its efforts to fulfill independence as an Islamic state, however, cost for the Iranian people heavily. First of all, the United States spurred its regional puppet, the late dictator Saddam Hussein, on to launch a massive, crushing war against Iran so as to push the country’s newly-established political regime to annihilation. The 8-year war demolished Iran’s infrastructures irreversibly, caused irreparable damages to country’s economy and left more than 350,000 Iranians dead.
The 8-year resistance of the Iranian people, however, rendered the plans of the U.S. and its Baathist ally futile. Iran rose from the rubbles of 8-year war with Iraq and set out to emerge as a regional superpower gradually. Iranians recreated the country’s war-torn economy once again, renewed the obliterated infrastructures, appeased the pains of the families of 350,000 martyrs with compassion and brought hopes to the hearts of those who had come to think that a political state with the ideological pillars of Islam would be impossible to survive.
The animosity of the United States and its cronies, however, didn’t seem to be ending. In 1984, the United States approved its first set of sanctions against Iran which would prohibit Washington from selling American weapons to Tehran. During the presidency of Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, the sanctions got tougher and broader. In April 1995, President Bill Clinton issued a total embargo on U.S. dealings with Iran, banning every kind of financial transaction with the war-hit country. In 1996, the United States Congress passed the Iran–Libya Sanctions Act under which all the foreign firms and companies that provide investments over $20 million for the development of petrochemical projects in Iran would be penalized. The most inequitable and unreasonable sanctions against Iran, however, were those which would were endorsed in 1995 and disallowed the aviation companies around the world to sell aircrafts and repair parts to the Iranian airlines directly.
Iran’s aviation fleet which is chiefly comprised of Russian low-quality Tupelov and outdated Airbus and Fokker planes is one of the most vulnerable fleets in the world which suffers from increasing dilapidation and is considered to be highly at risk due to the unjust sanctions which are imposed against the country.
In December 2005, BBC World published a report in which it was expressively stated that Iran’s civil and military aviation fleet is undergoing intense safety setbacks. The report came after an Iranian Air Force C-130E military transport aircraft crashed into a residential complex in Tehran, killing 128 people including 68 reporters and journalists that were supposed to cover a military drill off the country’s southern coast on the Persian Gulf.
Two years earlier, a Russian-manufactured Ilyushin Il-76 transporter plane crashed in southeastern Iran, killing 302 passengers and cabin crew.
Iran has experienced several deadly air accidents in which hundreds of innocent civilians lost their lives. On July 15, 2009, the Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 heading from Tehran to Yerevan crashed near the village of Jannatabad in northern Iran, killing 168 passengers and cabin crews. Among the dead were all members of Iran’s national youth judo team members and several other prominent persons including a former parliament member and the wife of Georgian Ambassador to Tehran.
On July 24, 2009, another deadly plane crash happened in Iran which cost the life of 16 people. While attempting to land, the plane skidded off the runway and broke into a wall, killing 16 out of 153 passengers and crew members who were aboard the plane.
Unfortunately, the frequency of deadly plane crashes in Iran has been so high that made Iran’s aviation fleets one of the most insecure and unsafe ones in the world. Tens of people die each year as a result of a childish altercation which seems to have no rational basis. The United States has failed to dictate its political will to Iran and resorts to this failure as a pretext for punishing its people.
The United States and its European allies who boast of themselves as being the harbingers of human rights and liberty have obliviously forgotten that they are simply human beings who lose their lives as a result of the sanctions which they’ve devised. The civilian passengers who are destined to die in the insecure flights of Iran’s aviation fleet are the victims of those who have long trumpeted in our ears that they’re the sole defenders of human rights. If the life of each human being is respectable, then who is responsible for the lives of these hundreds of people who pass away before the eyes of the so-called international community which is always alert to caution about the violation of human rights in Iran and other independent countries? Isn’t the life of these people who get in the dilapidated Russian planes of Iran’s fleet and embrace death to the most extreme point of imagination respectable that you’ve deprived them of having the opportunity to experience a safe and secure trip? What’s the fault of Iran’s innocent civilians whom you’re punishing collectively?
Kourosh Ziabari is an Iranian freelance journalist and media correspondent. His articles and interviews have appeared on a number of media outlets and news websites including Tehran Times, Press TV, Global Research and Foreign Policy Journal.
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Don’t take it personal, but you Muslims are stupid if you don’t unite!
The new Nazis (Jews, Christians, etc.) will murder you!
Don’t you get it? Nobody in the West cares about your lives!
[Reply]
Sir, The United States (at the behest of the British government and present day British Petroleum) did participate in the 1953 coup that toppled the government of Prime Minister Mossadeg. It has since publically stated its regret for the incident (which fell on deaf Iranian ears). In early 1979, the Shah had rightfully lost the support of his country. The United States chose to not support him and allow the Iranians to determine their own destiny. The US was actively seeking to maintain relations with the new Islamic government. As a sign of gratitude, on November 4 1979, the Iranian government declared war against the United States. The purpose of this was to humiliate and force the resignations of the then Prime Minister Bazargan and his cabinet. They may have understood that they could have been liable as war criminals had America attacked and conquered Iran. Afterward, Khomeini was able to install his own clerical constitution and turn himself into a new Shah. Hence Iranian democracy 2.0 came to an end 7 months after it started. Formal relations were suspended in March 1980. Iranian embassy personnel were given 72 hours to vacate Washington DC. The Iranian embassy remains preserved with dignity. The American Embassy has been turned into a museum of horrors with its “art”. Sculptures of blindfolded Americans, Statue of Liberty mockup, and the 1980 wreckage of a rescue helicopter. Across town, there is a memorial to the 1983 Beirut “martyrs” who murdered 241 unarmed American soldiers while they lay sleeping in bed.
Khomeini chose poorly in endorsing the Embassy takeover. The students could have taken all of the documents and fled into the shadows within 24 hours without official government endorsement … oh well.
In regards to the Iraq war, Sadaam realized that it was a hopeless stalemate in 1982 and wanted the war to end at Iran’s 1975-80 border. Iran had proven to its neighbors that it could defend itself. Those who had fought and died to that point were national heroes. Instead ‘dear leader’ decided that he wanted to fully conquer Iraq. All deaths after that point are on his hands alone. Giving young boys a cheap plastic key and having them blow themselves up for no viable reason is a crime. These boys never had the chance to live and grow. They never were able to get married and have children of their own. The amount of suffering their families had to go through was/ is equally as unjustified. Lastly, what is so holy about muslims killing each other (especially Shia vs. Shia)? Iraq was weakened with debt and is now torn to pieces.
In regards to aircrafts, the Iranian government could have all of the Soviet garbage they can muster. If they want nice viable western aircrafts/ parts, they should seriously consider re-establishing relations with the US. Who would have thought that the Communist government of Vietnam and the USA would have normalized relations and undertake joint military exercises 35 years after the war ended. More than 3 million Vietnamese perished and more bombs were dropped than all of WWII. In closing, does it make sense to give any assistance to a country that is at war with you and chants for your death?
[Reply]
Babak Reply:
September 9th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Saddam only offered peace when he was losing. As soon as he had a chance to regroup, he would have attacked Iran again as he later attacked Kuwait. Saddam was a monster that the USA supported and helped for many years.
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Babak Reply:
September 9th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
After the xShah slaughtered thousands of Iranians in Zhalleh square, the next day the USA officially gave its verbal support to the Shah, which basically gave him more political power. The USA gave riot equipment to the xShah’s security, and trained the xShah’s savak. So, the USA did support the xShah during the revolution. The US embassy takeover was like a little mosquito bite compared the the massive wounds that the USA inflicted on Iran.
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Babak Reply:
September 9th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
“Afterward, Khomeini was able to install his own clerical constitution and turn himself into a new Shah. ”
Actually, Iranians overwhelmingly voted for the Khomeini government.
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The same can be said for the accusers, you know, although the apologist has the unique malady of being able to interpret everything according to their pre-existing dogmatic conclusions.. All we have to do is behave like a civilized nation and not like a state run by raving lunatics. We can’t blame others when our misdeeds lead us to being blackballed. Perhaps you can point to the numerous Iranian invasions of other neutral or peaceable nations, their extraordinary rendition of civilians, and their constant blaming of their own victims for the death rained upon them? Perhaps you can also point out the countries that they’re currently occupying as examples of their barbarism. We tried to take them out, failed, and settled for punishing the whole country with sanctions, but they’re supposed to love us? This article has an Iranian source so you think all you need to do is smear him and his people and this whole issue will go away. But ultimately, people are starting to see the propaganda game for what it is, and nobody on either side is seeing any benefit from it. Perhaps it’s time to ask ourselves if war is a product of human nature or simply a side effect of being forced into survival mode amidst a sea of abundance.
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“Giving young boys a cheap plastic key and having them blow themselves up for no viable reason is a crime.”
That never happened. That was just Western propaganda from movies like “Not Without My Daughter” which was made in Israel. No one under 16 was permitted into the military.
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“In closing, does it make sense to give any assistance to a country that is at war with you”
Iran is not at war with the USA. Rather it is the USA that is at war with Iran. The USA helped Saddam murder Iranians. The USA put all sorts of sanctions on Iran right after the revolution including a wheat sanction to starve Iranians. It is the USA that has repeatedly said that all options are on the table, and has funded anti-Iranian terrorists like the Jundallah, and the MKO. Iran has said that it is willing to reestablish relations with the USA, but the USA (under the thumb of the Zionist lobbies) repeatedly opts for hostilities. Instead, the USA obstructs Iran’s peaceful nuclear ambitions and creates all sorts of fabricated and hostile accusations with no proof while the USA helps Israel slaughter Palestinians and Lebanese.
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