Aviation sanctions violate Iran rights

The US-imposed sanctions on Iran, which ban all states from selling the country airplane spare parts, are an unequivocal violation of human rights, an Iranian foreign ministry official says.

According to American analysts sanctions against Iran are inconclusive and counterproductive because they have affected Western states as well, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Hassan Qashqavi said Monday.

“Since the victory of the Islamic Revolution we have been faced with sanctions against plane spare parts imposed by the US and now by other countries,” Fars News Agency quoted him as saying.

Qashqavi cited the issue as the sheer violation of human rights arguing that Iranian planes are passenger jets which are being used by a large number of Iranian and foreign civilians.

The US and its allies have accused Iran of pursuing a military agenda through its civilian nuclear program. Tehran has repeatedly refuted the allegations.

According to US sanctions, companies worldwide are banned from selling aircraft or any spare aircraft parts needed to maintain Iran’s civilian air fleets to the country.

Iran has suffered a string of aviation disasters over the past decade, mostly involving private airlines using Russian-made planes and crew as a result of the sanctions.

In one of the worst plane crashes, a Tupolev-154M crashed shortly after take-off from Tehran en route to the Armenian capital of Yerevan on July 15, 2009, leaving all 168 passengers onboard dead.