A Small Victory

Who says sanctions on Iran don't work?  From the Beeb:

An Iranian military plane with 94 people on board has crashed into a 10-storey apartment building in a built-up suburb of the capital Tehran.

There was a huge explosion and fire in the building. Police said everyone had died on the plane and many deaths were feared on the ground.

...The Iranian air force is believed to have about 15 ageing US-made C-130s in operation, dating back to before the 1979 Islamic revolution and the US boycott of Iran.

The country's civil and military aircraft have a poor safety record.

In 2003, an Iranian Ilyushin-76 troop carrier crashed in south-east Iran killing all 276 Revolutionary Guard soldiers and crew aboard.

Officials blame the high frequency of crashes on a lack of aviation spare parts due to US sanctions.

Well, they would, wouldn't they?  ECB had some thoughts on the impact of US sanctions on Iranian aviation earlier this year.

UPDATE: More on this theme from the International Herald Tribune:

Six months before a U.S.-made Iranian military transport plane crashed last week and killed 108 people, a report prepared for the International Civil Aviation Organization warned that U.S. sanctions against Iran were placing civilian lives in danger by denying Iranian aviation necessary spare parts and aircraft repair.

The report, written by a Canadian contractor, had been requested and paid for by Iran, agency officials said, but Iran had no role in writing it. The report did not deal with military aircraft, but it said that the U.S. government and major U.S. companies were ignoring international treaties and taking actions that put passengers on Iranian commercial airlines at risk, including thousands of people from other countries traveling to and from Iran.

...The U.S. actions listed as detrimental to safety in the agency report include the refusal of companies to provide spare parts, confiscation of engines sent to other countries for repair, withholding of navigation information, and even threats to stop providing parts to European airlines for their own planes if they did maintenance work for Iran.

"The lack of concern for aviation safety is surprising in intensity and vigor," the report said. "Since most Iranian aircraft spend most of their time in foreign airspace over foreign built-up areas, common sense and an agreed minimum level of safety must prevail within the concept of economic sanctions."

Iran Air and eight smaller Iranian airlines fly over much of Europe, often without the latest navigation charts, according to the report. In addition, although 23 foreign airlines land in Iran, many navigation aids are not being properly calibrated because one of the two Iranian aircraft equipped with special calibrating equipment is grounded for lack of parts, the report said.

Comments

[Don Weadon]

The Iran embargo continues to be dangerously maladroit. The largest component of our current account balance of trade is airframe exports. Boeing is on the ropes as Airbus dines heartily on their lunch. So it comes as no surprise that the embargo has an "air safety" carve out. The administration of this carve out has been generally mindless, and license applicants who are not favorites of Boeing are ignored, to the detriment of the GATT/WCO national treatment rule.

What IS clear is that if a Boeing civilian aircraft ever plummets to earth with loss of life for want of repair parts, the victims will be the U.S. taxpayers, as the failure of our government to stand behind the airworthiness of our commercial aircraft will be used to steer away from Boeing/the U.S. vast quantities of potential aircraft sales. And all Americans will be poorer for it in the short and long term.

The Iran embargo and its management does a disservice to the best interests of the United States. And the only behavioral modification it has engendered is Iran's turning to China and Russia for its major purchases. Mindless.

[Mike Lorrey]

and it's not as if Boeing wouldn't simply be having its parts made in China, anyways, likely at the same plants that are selling Iran pirated non-FAA approved versions.....

[Export Boy]

Yes yes! "Sell us spare parts to use in our MILITARY, er...um...civilian planes." Anyone think the crash of an Iranian military carrier is going to cause OFAC to have a change of heart?

I'm not taking the USG's position here, but seriously...the exemptions in other embargoes are for CIVIL aviation. Blaming the US for this tragedy amounts to an admission by Iran that any civil aviation assistance they get will be diverted to the Military. The US has no interest in supplying the Iranian military with anything, hence the impasse...

[Payam Bagheri]

You can continue to write books on this but you are just wasting your time. There are still so many flights to Europe and other parts of the world by Iran and they will continue to do so. You can also continue your nonesense how much these sanctions are affecting their inductry but these are only good for yourself and stupid people like yourselves. Since all your industries are closing down one after the other becasue of the financial trouble, perhaps aviation industry will also soon go to China. Then what are you going to do ? Some times i really wonder how stupid you people are. Yes , be my guest and continue to fool yourselves!