Persian sleight of hand

In the past couple months there have been a couple of plane crashes in Iran that may hint at a struggle behind the scenes.

The first occurred December 6 when a military transport plane crashed into an apartment building near Tehran.

The air force C-130 -- carrying more than 90 people -- crashed at about 2 p.m. (1030 GMT) on Tuesday, sparking fires in the apartment building that houses military personnel and their families.

Everyone on board the plane was killed, including 47 journalists who planned to witness the Iranian navy's maneuvers in the Persian Gulf, officials said.

A health ministry spokesman said 110 bodies had been taken to hospitals near the crash site in the town of Towid, south of the capital.

The second occurred January 9 when a crash in northwestern Iran killed several high-ranking officials in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

According to IRNA, the plane went down near Aidinlou village about 12 kilometers (7 miles) west of the provincial capital, Uromieh, in West Azarbaijan province.
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IRNA reported that the guard's Commander of Ground Forces, Ahmad Kazemi, along with the commander of the 27th Rassoulollah Army Division and the chief of intelligence, died in the accident.

The IRNA provided a complete list here:

IRGC's Ground Forces Commander Ahmad Kazemi, Commander of Rassoulollah Army Division 27 Saeed Mohtadi, Deputy Commander of Ground Forces for Operation Affairs Saeed Soleymani and the Official in Charge of Information for Ground Forces Hanif Montazer-Qaem were among those martyred in the crash.

Also confirmed killed were the Commander of Artillery Unit Gholam-Reza Yazdani, two members of the Ground Forces' Command Office, Hamid Azinpour and Mohsen Asadi, Deputy Commander of Ground Forces Safdar Reshadi, the plane's pilot, Abbas Karvandi, and IRGC Colonels Ahmad Elhaminejad and Morteza Basiri.

That was quite a roster, and immediately there were questions about whether it was sabotage.

I bring this up now because in the last few days, Iran has sought to cast blame for these crashes on the United States and Britain.

Iran accused the United States, the United Kingdom and above all Israel of "playing a part in the latest two plane crashes which took place in the country."

Iranian Interior Minister Mustafa Purmohammedi, in a speech he made at a seminar Wednesday, said they have information that these three countries played a role in these crashes.

Purmohammedi claimed "US, British and Israeli secret services want to cause insecurity in Iran" though declining to elaborate further his accusations.

On January 24, there were explosions in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, a city in Iran that is home to a sizeable Arab Sunni population. Iranian President Ahmadinejad was scheduled to go there, but canceled, prompting suspicion he had gotten wind of the attack.

At least eight people were killed today in two explosions in the southern Iranian city of Ahvaz. Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad was scheduled to travel today to Khuzestan Province and also to Ahvaz, but Iranian news agencies reported that the visit was postponed due to bad weather conditions. Ahvaz, the provincial capital of Khuzestan Province, was the scene of ethnic unrest last year and it was also hit by a series of explosions in June and October.

No group has claimed responsibility for the explosions and it is not clear whether there is any connection between the blasts and President Ahmadinejad's scheduled visit.

The two explosions occurred around 10 a.m. (6:30 GMT) local time. One bomb exploded close to a bank while the other reportedly ripped through the city's Natural Resources Department. Reports said fire had gutted the Saman Bank and that broken glass littered streets around the blast sites. An official said 46 people are reported injured in the two blasts.

Colonel Salehi, an official with Iran's Police Emergency Center, spoke earlier today on Iranian state television: "Unfortunately we have been informed that, so far, in the Ahvaz bombing incidents [eight] people have been martyred in Kianpars in front of Saman Bank.... Based on investigations, the bombs that exploded were concussion bombs."

Combined with an attack December 15 on Ahmadinejad's motorcade that killed his bodyguard, there are hints forces in Iran opposed to Ahmadinejad might be trying to assassinate him.

As with the plane crashes though, Iran has tried to blame for the Ahvaz attacks on the United States and Britain.

Iran's president blamed "the occupiers of Iraq" -- inferring the United States and Britain on Wednesday -- for two bombings that killed at least nine people in the southwestern city of Ahvaz.

The foreign minister said the bombers were supported by the British military, which is based in southern Iraq. Ahvaz has a history of violence involving members of Iran's Arab minority.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office called the allegations "ludicrous." A group seeking independence for the Ahvaz region later claimed responsibility.

Iranian television said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a decree ordering his foreign minister and intelligence minister to investigate the possibility "foreign hands" were responsible for Tuesday's blasts inside a bank and outside a state environmental agency building. Forty-six people were wounded, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

In this post I had drawn some parallels between the rise of Hitler and the current Iranian regime. Here is another disturbing parallel. Hitler blamed many of Germany's woes on the Jews in his bid to marginalize and ultimately destory the population.

Iran is doing much the same thing here. Rather than face internal troubles, Iran is looking for an outside scapegoat, one they can redirect internal unrest towards.

As the confrontation over Iran's nuclear program builds, Iran is trying to shift responsibility for its current difficulties to foreigners. Worse, Iran may be trying to set up a casus belli to justify its current aggressive stance.

Iran needs to be dealt with, and soon. Having nuclear weapons in the hands of this kind of regime is a recipe for disaster.