TEHRAN (Iran News) – Crime and No-Punishment. On Saturday, the Islamic Republic of Iran marked one of the most tragic events in its 44-year life and people and officials by pouring flowers in the sea marked one of the crimes of the U.S.
Iranians on Saturday marked the anniversary of a U.S. warship’s downing of an Iranian Airbus passenger plane that killed all the 290 on the board which happened on July 3, 1988.
On July 3, 1988, the USS Vincennes warship fired two missiles at an Iran Air Airbus A300B2, which was flying over the Strait of Hormuz from the port city of Bandar Abbas to Dubai, carrying 274 passengers and 16 crew members.
Following the attack, the plane disintegrated and crashed into the Persian Gulf waters, killing all the 290 on board, among them 66 children.
During a memorial ceremony on Saturday, officials from Iran’s southern Hormozgan province and the families of the tragedy’s victims, who were aboard a vessel, tossed flowers into the waters near the Strait of Hormuz and Hengam Island.
Chanting slogans such as “Down with the U.S.” and “Down with Israel,” the participants condemned the inhumane US war crime.
After this horrible crime, U.S. officials claimed that the USS Vincennes had mistaken Iran Air Flight 655 for a warplane. This is while the warship was equipped with highly sophisticated radar systems and electronic battle gear at the time of the attack.
In 1990, the captain of the cruiser, William C. Rogers, was cleared of any wrongdoing, and was even awarded America’s Legion of Merit medal by then U.S. president George Bush for his “outstanding service” during operations in the Persian Gulf.
In a post on its Twitter account, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Washington neither “apologized” nor felt “embarrassed” over the crime. It was natural to say no apology from the U.S. officials because killing, sanction, war and meddling in the internal affairs of the countries are common habits of the U.S. and one should not expect any apology or retreat by the Americans and for this reason countries need to be strong enough to respond such merciless crimes of the U.S.
On Saturday Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif recalled the U.S.’s downing of an Iranian passenger plane on the tragedy’s anniversary, saying Washington continues to target the Iranian nation with violence to date.
“33 years ago today, U.S. shot down Iran Air 655,” he tweeted on Saturday.
“As a young diplomat, I witnessed U.S. refusal to apologize over the human tragedy it caused,” Zarif said.
“U.S. violence against Iranians began long before & continues today with Economic Terrorism against our people,” the top diplomat concluded.
The U.S. crimes against Iran has continued since the first day of the emergence of the Islamic Republic in Iran and the crimes have been in different forms like sanctions, meddling in the domestic affairs, taking military action or encouraging the puppet regimes to wage a war on Iran.
By economic terrorism, the foreign minister in his tweet was referring to the U.S.’s push through sanctions to prevent the Islamic Republic from conducting any trade activity with the outside world.
The sanctions have been coming in the way of the country’s even buying foodstuffs and medicine among other vital items. The global coronavirus’ pandemic has not triggered Washington to suspend the bans either.
The United States has been deploying sanctions against Iran since the 1979 victory of the country’s Islamic Revolution. The U.S. sustains its inhumane campaign despite several calls on it by the United Nations to lift the measures, and an International Court of Justice ruling obliging it to do the same.
But one should not expect the callous U.S. to stop its inhuman actions against Iran as long as the Islamic Republic establishment exists in Iran and Iranians should themselves give proper responses to the American crimes. The U.S. tries to show itself as defender of human rights and peace-loving country but it can kill people and wage war on the nations easily to show the other side of the coin that reveals merciless nation of this big imperialist state.
Let’s remember the memory of those who were on board of this passenger plane and make our country strong enough in order not to let any country dare to commit such crimes against us with and escape it unanswered because waiting for the international community to take measure action against this world arrogance is waste of time.
