Iran is in a state of mourning after the deadly crash of a helicopter that killed President Ebrahim Raisi and foreign minister Hossein Aamir Abdollahian on Sunday. The crash in the Islamic nation’s western mountain region was followed by hours of silence from the government even as speculations about an Israeli hand strengthened. In all probability, this was not so and as Iran itself admitted in so many words, it could be a case of adverse weather conditions and technical snag to the aircraft caught in atmospheric turbulence. Israel has denied its involvement, though it had in recent times warned Iran of serious consequences vis-a-vis the abrupt attacks on the Jewish nation by the Hamas and other Islamic militants that killed many since October 7 last. That fight, part of the decades-long West Asia fight between Palestinians and Jews, is continuing. Yet, Tehran has veered round to the view that there was no external plot behind the crash.
Iran itself is to blame for the way it is unable to replenish or even maintain its fleet of old aircraft, bought mainly in the 1970s under the rule of the Mohmammad Reza Pazlavi or ‘Shah of Iran’ for short. The progressive, pro-West ruler’s ouster from power was at the hands of the Revolutionary Guards in 1979. A line of fundamentalists, Ayatollahs, the latest by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for nearly half a century has taken Iran back to the medieval times in terms of the nation’s social and governance mindset. Shah’s ouster was followed by house-arrest of US diplomats, which ended only after a tough-talking Ronald Reagan won the American Presidential polls and issued a stern warning to Tehran. But, the rule of the revolutionary guards continued in Iran, followed by seasons of American and Western sanctions. Today, Iran is neither able to buy new aircraft from the West nor get spare parts. This is only one of the many handicaps with which the Shia-prominent nation is carrying forward.
It’s one thing to challenge the super powers and quite another to perform in a manner that would satisfy the requirements of the nation. The 8.86 crore population, despite Iran’s huge oil wealth, is in distress but has not been able to raise its voice because of the fundamentalist overreach. Many see the change in Iran over the past 45 years as a journey from light to darkness. The Islamic world as a whole has transformed, some to better times as in the oil-rich Gulf and the rest to worse scenarios, during this period. Excessive adherence to, or interpretation of, religious tenets, and worse by semi-literate mullahs, has been the curse of the present times.
