Droning On...

By Paul Iddon

Washington downplays, Tehran overplays.

Captured RQ-170 in Iran.

Last July a rumour suggested that Iran had shot down an unmanned US drone over the Fordo uranium enrichment facility near Qom. I quipped at the time that given the fact it may indeed have been an unmanned drone that the Iranians would be unable to produce 'a Gary Powers' so to speak which would in turn ultimately serve to refute the US claim that they were not violating Iranian air space with such drones.

However earlier this month the Iranians were able to produce such irrefutable evidence that a US drone had indeed violated Iranian air space. The recent capture of the RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone has given the regime in Tehran a propaganda coup with their claim of having been able to 'electronically' bring down the drone with minimal damage over the embarrassing US claim of the drone having 'malfunctioned' and subsequently been lost whilst operating near Afghanistan's western frontier with the Islamic Republic.

Scorn was poured on the Obama Administration after they sent a formal request for the drones return. Secretary of State Clinton had previously stated that “given Iran's behaviour to date” – the regimes odious behaviour to its own citizens in recent weeks includes threatening actress Marzieh Vafamehr with 90 lashes for violating the countries brutally enforced dress code, the actual lashing of an Iranian student for merely “insulting” the President and on top of that offering death as the only alternative to conversion to Islam for the Iranian Evangelical pastor Youcef Nadarkhani – she didn't expect they would even reply and despite “provocations” asserted that the US would pursue a “diplomatic approach.”

Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi whom has stated that the drone is now Iran's property responded to the American request for its return by stating bluntly of the US has "instead of apologizing to the Iranian nation,” opted to “brazenly asking for the drone back.”

In a previous column entitled 'A Time to Apologize' which I wrote a few days after the 23rd anniversary of the horrific downing of Iran Air Flight 655 by the US Navy I argued that the US should make a formal heartfelt and thoroughly sincere apology to the people of Iran. As at the end of the day the attack was against them, as nearly any Iranian could have been on that plane on that fateful day. However I also added that such an apology could not given in an effective and meaningful manner with the present leadership as it forcibly imposes its will on the Iranian people and therefore cannot act as their legitimate representative on the international stage.

There is no doubt that the United States has violated Iranian sovereignty by traversing this piece of military hardware through Iran's air space. The regime however has undermined Iran's claim to its right of sovereignty. As it not only harbours but – as in the case of Vahidi – has actually given a ministerial position to a man who is wanted by the Argentinian authorities and Interpol for planning the bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires which killed 85 people and injured several hundred more. Not only was this incident a terrorist act executed on foreign soil it is also the most significant and heinous acts of violence on Argentinian soil since the homicide bombing of Israels Argentine embassy in 1992 of which Hezbollah is suspected of organizing and executing.

So in conclusion, whilst the United States has blatantly disregarded Iran's sovereign integrity the ruling regime in Tehran has consistently and self-consciously been degrading and undermining it