Okaz

THERE is a saying in the United States: “If you kill a person, look for a lawyer and if you kill 10 people, look for a lobby or pressure group.” This is exactly what is being done today especially by a section of the American media. A case in point here is an interview of Vali Nasr, an American national of Iranian origin with CNN, following the shooting down of the Ukrainian plane as it took off from the Khomeini Airport in Tehran.

In the interview, Nasr spoke about things such as the nationalities of the dead, the countries that have the right to make an intervention and those who are not entitled to do so, and also about those among the dead who hold a dual nationality.

He should have spoken about the need to own responsibility for the mishap by the Americans and the French, because they have no victims on board the plane! And also on the need to not jumping to conclusions on the incident but wait for the facts, and not to be swayed by a video clip showing the moment when the Ukrainian plane was targeted! Just a moment...

Then, what about the story of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi? Jamal was a Saudi citizen and was not among 176 passengers of different nationalities who perished in the plane attack.

Jamal was killed at his country’s consulate by his fellow citizens, who committed the crime in their individual capacities and not as a result of the order of the state, and this fact was emphatically acknowledged by the court. So why did no one say that non-Saudis should own responsibility for that and not believe what was leaked? And why did they reject the idea that Jamal, may God have mercy on him, was killed by mistake, though it was an unpardonable crime?

Another question: Why is it acceptable for the Canadian prime minister to say that the killing of 176 passengers on board the Ukrainian plane may have been made by a mistake, but at the same time it is unacceptable to say that the murder of Khashoggi may have been committed by an error? Why did the American media, particularly the anti-Trump media, accept the president’s statement that the Ukrainian plane was shot down in a dangerous zone, but it was unacceptable for them when Trump said that Khashoggi’s murder may have been committed by a gang of rogues? If the Westerners talk about the Ukrainian plane, which killed 176 people, was not a hypocrisy, compared to the death of Khashoggi, then what is hypocrisy?

Is it conceivable that a country — here talking about Iran — from the supreme leader to all elements of the regime, passing through the president, launches missiles at an American base in Iraq without notifying the air traffic control in their country? In such a scenario, the safety of the airspace must have been confirmed, especially their commercial flights could have been postponed even under the pretext that the air navigation system was disrupted due to circumstances beyond control. Is Iran not a state of lies?

Certainly, Iran is neither a normal country nor it belongs to the year 2020. And the most certain thing is that many in the West espouse double standards as they seek excuses for the sake of Iran in its killing of 176 passengers, and they argue about the details of the victims’ birth and their dual nationality. At the same time, they want to condemn Saudi Arabia as a whole because of the killing of a Saudi citizen by the fault of some of its citizens. Is there more hypocrisy than this?