The world will always hold the Iranians’ ineptitude and lies against them
It goes without saying, the last 72 hours have been a disaster for Iran’s reputation.
On Wednesday I ventured that ‘the threat of revenge may serve Iran better than revenge itself.’
Before Iran retaliated – so ineptly and tragically – it was the Americans who were on the back foot. Their strategy looked chaotic and their allies appeared to be deserting them. But then Iran made its move.
The hysteria and bloodlust whipped up by Iran’s rulers in the wake of Qassem Soleimani’s assassination has now cost the lives of more than 130 Iranians - more than 50 crushed at the funeral; more than 80 killed in the downing of the Ukrainian airliner.
They will have known immediately that they shot down the 737. Their instinct was to cover it up.
And so for nearly three days they lied through their teeth.
As recently as yesterday Ali Abedzadeh from Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation went on television and said: “What is obvious for us, and what we can say with certainty, is that no missile hit the plane.”Now the weight of evidence to the contrary has forced Iran to confess.
The shooting down of the airliner is a tragic unintended consequence that has at least taken the heat out of this crisis, for the time being.
In the longer term, the world will always hold the Iranians’ ineptitude and lies against them as they pursue their goal of becoming a nuclear power.