The BBC has decided that Iran’s recent disastrous plane crashes are the U.S.’s fault, ignoring the country’s dictatorship, which is unaccountable to its own people, and which bares sole responsibility for the safety of its own people. From the BBC:

Because of US sanctions, Iran cannot buy spare parts of its ageing military and civilian fleet - something that puts lives in danger as air crashes become increasingly frequent, says the BBC’s Frances Harrison in Tehran.

Iran has the second largest reserve of oil in the world. The Beeb itself admits:

Despite huge oil wealth, the country suffers from high unemployment and an increasing gap between rich and poor.

According to official data, 15% of Iranians live below the poverty line, although unofficial estimates suggest that figure is much closer to 40%.

The point is, if Iran wanted to purchase spare aircraft parts, purchase new aircraft, or just plain order a service contract, it has the money to do so. And it could easily buy those things from India, Russia, the EU, etc.

Even Iran’s tightly controlled press isn’t buying the BBC’s line — according to the Beeb itself:

Newspapers in Iran are both angry and cynical about the plane crash in Tehran on Tuesday in which over 100 people died.

Commentators are scathing about the lack of adequate safety checks said to be a widespread issue in Iran. The fact that many journalists were among the dead adds piquancy to their comments.

One Iranian paper, Hamshahri, pointed out that:

…officials should be called to account over the fact that so many journalists were allowed to travel together on “an old aeroplane”.

It also points out that “the aforementioned aeroplane had requested an emergency landing twice yesterday and the control tower didn’t issue landing permission”.

It looks like the BBC still clings to the worn-out colonial victimization theory, where Third World countries can do no wrong, even when they are busy doing much wrong. Iran is the “most active state sponsor of terrorism.” Its President Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.” In addition, he has called for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the Holy Land, has denied that the Holocaust ever occurred, and is now organizing a conference to prove that the Holocaust was a “myth.”

Blame for Iran’s air disasters lies squarely at the feet of its corrupt, Islamist dictators.

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Related: Iran

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