Why Iran is Blaming the US for President Raisi's Helicopter Crash | Vantage with Palki Sharma

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Valley sh [Music] Iran President Ibrahim Ry has been laid to rest the scenes were similar to what played out in the last two days thousands of people flooded the streets as the Convoy reached its final stop of mashad in the last three days it has traveled to five different cities in Iran mashad is the hometown of Ibrahim RI his remains have been buried there Iran says officials from 68 countries were press for the funeral [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and with that the three-day funeral ceremony came to a close now the public discourse is Shifting Focus from what happened to why it happened that's what people are asking why did the president's Chopper crash the investigation is still on but a new theory is or or a new charge is gaining traction that the Americans are to blame that us sanctions caused the helicopter crash this claim is being pushed by some Iranians and their allies in Russia they say had it not been for us sanctions the Iranian president would have been alive You could argue it either way but when this sentiment takes hold it further poisons an already difficult relationship between the US and Iran so why is the theory being propagated who exactly is doing it and what do they stand to gain and what is the US saying or doing about it the idea to pin blame on the US was floated soon after the crash when Iranians saw the pictures of the wreckage and they realized that R and team were flying in an American Chopper a bell 212 helicopter Iran bought it when the Sha was still in power so more than 45 years back the chopper is named after its manufactur a company called Bell Helicopter it was first launched in 1968 and it was discontinued in 1999 this Chopper but the Iranian president was still being flown in it in a chopper that was no longer in production R's helicopter crashed on Sunday the very next day on Monday Russia's foreign minister spoke that Sergey lavro he was quick to blame the US by implementing the sanctions that include ban on supplies of service parts for the us made Aviation products they put people's lives at risk the Americans disown that but actually other countries under sanctions do not receive service parts for us made Hardware including Aviation us sanctions Are Taking Lives lvov blames America for this tragedy but obliquely here's someone else who's doing it directly Muhammad jaad zarif former foreign minister of Iran he called the US quote unquote a culprit he confirmed that Iran was unable to get Aviation Parts all because of American sanctions in fact let me quote further from his statement this is what zarifa said these will be recorded in the list of US crimes against the Iranian people so zarif is calling it a US crime and his view has many takers in thean including some influential voices is there Merit in this charge it is a fact that Iran cannot access Aviation civilian or military and this has been the case since 1979 that's when the Iranian Revolution took place after that Iran supply lines were cut the commercial airlines have some the oldest Fleet in the world the planes are more than 25 years old that's a quarter of a century Iran still operates planes like McDonald Douglas md-83 Airbus a300 and A310 the rest of the world has long retired these planes but Iran still flies them and where do they get their paths from well they have only two options either cannibalize other planes for parts or if possible reverse engineer them using materials that are available locally the Bell Choppers are patched up in a similar way so indeed the sanctions are an impediment but could Iran not have found alternatives in the last 45 years should they not have built or sour sour substitutes the regime in tan must answer these questions if the planes were too old to service why were they not replaced why was an old Chopper used to Ferry the President should they not have sought help from their allies like Russia and China they could have sourced paths from these countries why didn't they then there are questions on the circumstances leading to the crash like why was the chopper allowed to fly in a dense fog cover couldn't they have waited for the fog to lift did the pilot think about taking a detour or using a different route altogether and most importantly why were all these leaders sitting in the same Chopper two more helicopters were part of the Entourage they made it back safely it's not clear if they were occupied and so far Iran has not been able to answer any of these questions the investigation into the crash is ongoing so we'll have to wait for the full story to come out assuming that the full story does come out but at this juncture blaming America for the crash is at best a political move to Rally support and at worst a convenient excuse to evade responsibility first post reports from the world's second largest continent hello I'm Allison lrange a very warm welcome from Durban South Africa we get you the news and the News makers from Africa South Africa goes to the polls on the 29th of May I will track the election and bring you ground reports is it the end of the road for the African National Congress and will former president Jacob Zuma stage a dramatic comeback from elections to climate change to Innovations and opportunities as the world's attention shifts we report from Africa the heart of the global South join me every weekday live on first pose [Music]

Channel: Firstpost

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Id: hvTovzkJUAY

Length: 8min 0sec (480 seconds)

Published: Thu May 23 2024