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Israel lobby behind US bill targeting Iran aviation: Activist

Saturday, 18 February 2017 6:06 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 18 February 2017 6:06 PM ]

US Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks during a news conference at the Capitol February 17, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

US Republican senators have introduced a motion to impose fresh sanctions on Iran’s aviation sector, accusing Tehran of using civilian aircraft to support terrorism.

An author and peace activist believes accusations without evidence is all the United States needs to act, adding that these sanctions have everything to do with the Israel lobby rather than reality.

“The US is notorious for this. Accusations never need any evidence. All they need is to accuse and they act on the accusations. There is absolutely no reason to impose any kind of sanctions on commercial airliners from Iran and there is no evidence that such aircraft are being used for terrorism,” Ryan Dawson told Press TV in an interview on Saturday.

However, he said, there is a lot of evidence that the United States and Israel are backing terrorism.

The activist further noted the same kind of accusations without evidence were used for the invasion of Iraq where a "partisan cabal inside Pentagon, called the Office of Special Plans (OSP), fabricated and cherry-picked information" in order to orchestrate a war with the Arab country.

He went on to say the United States always uses “scare tactics” and then goes on with sanctions. But in the case of Iraq, he said, “it resulted in a million people being dead in a completely unnecessary war”.

Dawson further opined that it does not benefit the United States at all to put sanctions on Iran, asserting that the Islamic Republic is not a threat to Washington in any way.

He also emphasized this is Israel’s push to impose sanctions on Iran, arguing that US President Donald Trump is just another “run-of-the-mill” politician who “sucks up to Israel, collects their money and obeys”.

Sanctions on Iran’s aviation sector were removed under a nuclear accord signed between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries in 2015.

Since then, the UN Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have on several occasions verified that Iran has complied with the provisions of the deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

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