Last week, the New York Times examined how sanctions that prevent Iran from purchasing Western aircraft and spare parts are hurting ordinary Iranians and have contributed to a record of over 1,700 plane crash deaths in Iran over the past decade.

David Cohen, the Treasury Department Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence–who is responsible for enforcing sanctions–disputed the article and defended the aircraft sanctions.  He wrote that Iran Air aids Iranian weapons proliferation and so is not a purely civilian airline.  He also asserted that the U.S. does allow for inspections and repairs of Iranian civilian aircraft as long as the services are performed outside of Iran.

But Cohen’s response leaves out some very important points.

Although his first point is true – Iran Air is not only a passenger airline, but also provides services to Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, Cohen incorrectly cites June 2011 as the date these sanctions began. In reality, Iran has been unable to purchase Western planes or parts since 1979. Due to decades of sanctions, Iran’s aging fleet of airplanes has one of the worst air safety records in the world, suffering from at least one major plane accident a year. Iranian aircraft safety is so terrible that Iran Air was banned from flying over European airspace in 2010, due to safety concerns.

Cohen’s second point is also technically true: the U.S. has “issued licenses to allow for the inspection, and in previous years also the repair, of Iran’s civilian aircraft, so long as those services were performed outside Iran so the parts and services could not be misdirected to Iran’s military aircraft.”

However, he fails to mention that, if Iran were to send planes outside of the country, it is not unreasonable to suspect that the planes would be tampered with or bugged with espionage equipment. Given the recent barrage of espionage-related activities against Iran – ranging from assassinations to computer viruses – it is no surprise that Tehran would be unwilling to allow Iranian airplanes to be inspected or repaired under U.S. auspices in a third country. Thus, Iran will likely not risk sending any planes outside of the country for inspection.

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You think landing a plane under normal circumstances is tough?  Try landing one without the front landing gear.  This rather traumatizing and harrowing experience brings up an issue that needs to be examined: the effect of sanctions on Iran’s civilian aviation fleet.  The fleet is already dangerously dilapidated, crash prone and is set to become worse still.  But outrageous as it sounds, some members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee believe it should be even more dangerous to fly in Iran, and are taking action to make it so.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is set to vote on a bill tomorrow that would prevent the President from utilizing his humanitarian waiver authority to license the repair of civilian aircraft and the sale of civilian spare parts to Iran.  The bill would specifically ban “licenses to export or reexport goods, services, or technology relating to civil aviation” and make all existing licenses null and void.

Congress evidently doesn’t care much about your safety if you’re Iranian or if you’re one of the 75% of Iranian Americans who travel to Iran.

The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the Obama Administration is using sanctions to prevent Iranian civilian flights from refueling in Europe—flights that serve as “the main lifeline for Iranians with the outside world.”

This draconian step is particularly troubling since it is coming from an Administration that claimed to understand that isolating the Iranian people could “risk alienating parts of the population with which the West seeks to establish common cause”, and from a President who committed to “a more hopeful future for the Iranian people” through increased student exchanges.

But the Post explains how the Administration is working to divert and ground Iran Air flights by pressing oil companies in Europe not to refuel civilian flights.  This is a deliberate effort, according to one source in contact with the Administration, who asserts, “Be sure, the Obama administration is fully aware of the situation Iran Air is in.”

Thomas Erdbrink writes:

[The new sanctions effort] illustrates a shift away from an earlier U.S. policy of reaching out to the Iranian people and trying to target mostly state organizations central to Iran’s nuclear program. Officials now admit that the increased pressure is hurting ordinary Iranians but say they should blame their leaders for the Islamic republic’s increasing isolation.

But Erdbrink quotes a passenger on a diverted flight who takes exception:

“What do we have to do with our government?” an Iranian man asked loudly, after discovering to his surprise that the plane had landed on the Vienna tarmac. “We are becoming prisoners because of these disagreements between Iran and America.”