Sanctions could make flying more dangerous

By Paul Cochrane, in Beirut

Sanctions are one of those political issues that can make amiable dinner conversation turn unpleasant, as the battle lines are drawn down the table between those for and against. They have certainly had mixed success, starting with the first recorded case of a trade embargo some 2,400 years ago between Athens and neighboring Megara. That embargo failed and sparked a war.

Some argue they have had a spotty record since, while others prefer to pick-and-mix examples from embargoes through the ages to argue their case. The more pragmatic approach would be not whether sanctions “work,” but when and under what circumstances.

On one hand, those that are meant to oust a dictator but result in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians – in Iraq for instance – can be considered counter-productive. Those preventing a particularly nasty regime from getting hold of, say, chemical weapons, on the other hand, would appear desirable and effective.

Indeed, in a report on the effectiveness of sanctions by the Washington DC-based Institute for International Economics, out of 211 cases from World War I to 2000 there was success in only 38% of situations. Some work, others clearly don’t.

Sanctions on the aviation sector can fall under the ‘questionable effectiveness’ category. Meant to impede a country’s access to military aviation parts, their reasoning is understandable. For commercial aircraft, it ranks as dangerous. In the Middle East, this applies to Iran and, until July, Syria, when the United States tentatively eased sanctions on the export of goods to the Syrian aviation industry. Sanctions were first imposed against Syria in 1984 and tightened in 2004 by the Bush administration.

Aviation sanctions have long been considered a risk to air safety, with airlines that own American and European manufactured aircraft (Boeing and Airbus) unable to access spare parts and navigation equipment or to upgrade technology in line with international safety standards. A report prepared for the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has made this clear.

The dangers for aircraft and passengers was underscored in July when two Iranian commercial planes crashed within 10 days of each other, killing 184 people. Iran claims the sanctions were to blame, and Foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi came out to say the aviation sanctions that have been in place since 1979 by the west “signifies a violation of human rights.”

While in the two crashes no Western lives were lost, it may only be a matter of time before citizens of the primary sanction imposer, America, are also ‘collateral damage,’ whether on board a doomed aircraft, or while having a picnic when a badly serviced plane drops out of the sky.

As Flight Commander General Hazim Al Khadra, Director General of the Syrian Civil Aviation Authority told me in Damascus a few years ago: “Sanctions are a big problem because US aviation interferes with the aviation industry, the spare parts for commercial airlines in particular, which maintain the safety of passengers. And these passengers aren’t only Syrians, but also Europeans, Americans and Asians.”

It is curious after all that the Air France jet that crashed off Rio de Janeiro, and the US Airways plane that ditched into the Hudson River in New York earlier this year garnered extensive media reports about aircraft safety, yet the aviation sanctions against Syria and Iran have not. Unsafe aircraft flying around the world are not safe for anyone, whether on the ground or in the air. Indeed, I heard of people wanting to avoid flying altogether because of the Air France crash.

While sanctions are meant to put further pressure on the Islamic Republic to change its ways, the policy should be scrutinised as to what is effective and what is not. The sanctions related to the curbing of Iran’s nuclear aspirations and funding to groups like Hamas and Hizbullah is a political minefield, with strong arguments from across the political spectrum as to whether such a policy is working or not. Civil aviation however should be in a special category. It is a human right for people – civilians – to be able to fly and travel freely, and moreover, safely, wherever they want.