Iran's Fantasy Island
JOHNSON, REUBEN F.
Iran's Fantasy Island What I saw at the mullahs' first air show. BY REUBEN F. JOHNSON Kish Island, Iran LATE LAST YEAR, despite embargoes and the country's self-imposed isolation since the 1979...
...Their power is a major obstacle for any Iranian entity looking to engage the outside world and acts as a distinct brake on institutional and technological progress...
...Some of what has been achieved by Iranian technicians— sometimes working with partial documentation and no access to the U.S...
...Another factor that will help determine whether Iran experiences rapprochement or violent revolution is the United States and its coming war in Iraq...
...Nowhere was this more obvious than at the Iranian Air Show...
...About the only vestige remaining from the island's heyday is in the Shayan's coffee lounge, a piano that belonged to the late shah's wife...
...This conflict between reformers and conservative Islamic clerics boiled over the day after the air show ended when a death sentence was handed down to Hashem Aghajari, a professor of political science...
...Meanwhile, a unit of the infamous Pas-daran, the Revolutionary Guard Corps that enforces Islamic law, has been dispatched to watch over the island and make sure it does not stray from the righteous path...
...The plan worked until 1979, when Iran was taken over by the ayatollah...
...and European shopping centers, such as Timberland, Gap, Gucci, Ray-Ban, and the women's clothing firm Zara are doing a brisk business...
...Life on the island has improved, but of course drinking is still forbid-den—as is gambling—so what were once hotel bars and discos are closed off and used only for special events like the main press conference given on the last day of the air show...
...How will the new generation of young adults react a few years from now when it is not merely their lifestyle, but their ability to earn a living, that is restricted by Iran's hated regime...
...embargo, Iran's aerospace industry has had to reverse-engineer parts for its American-built equipment while begging, borrowing, or otherwise procuring what they cannot cobble together...
...About half of Iran's population is under 21...
...In what is described as his own personal protest, Sabet has been holding off on the grand opening of his hotel...
...The program suffered a severe blow on December 23, however, when a prototype aircraft flew into the side of a mountain on its way to a ceremony in Iran to commemorate the production of the first Iranian-produced model, killing all those on board...
...Of course, a day of reckoning may come sooner for Iran's defense and aerospace industry, because it is only a matter of time before these U.S.-built aircraft—some of which are more than 25 years old— are no longer useable, however ingenious Iranian engineers may be...
...Around the time of his speech reformers in the parliament were introducing two bills that would give President Khatami veto power over decisions of the cleric-controlled judiciary...
...The Iranian air forces briefly flirted with switching suppliers in the early 1990s and purchased a number of Mikoyan MiG-29 fighters from Russia, but there were no significant follow-on orders...
...These U.S.-built aircraft had been captured when North Vietnam overran the Washington-backed South Vietnamese state...
...So, it is easier to just say the pool is closed...
...New shopping malls boast a number of well-stocked stores and are as nicely appointed as any similar spot in the United Arab Emirates...
...The Reuben F. Johnson is a correspondent for Periscope, a Washington, D.C., website, and for the monthly magazine Aviation International News...
...Iran is currently engaged in an active program with Ukraine for the licensed production at Isfahan of over 100 of the Antonov An-140, a 50-passenger twin-propeller engine commuter airliner...
...Kish Island is a small enclave in the Persian Gulf about 11 miles from the Iranian coast...
...fighters in the air...
...A more accessible location was then selected—the Kish Island Free Trade Zone...
...Because of the U.S...
...Of particular interest was the choice of venue...
...On the tarmac at Kish airport, Iranian engineers demonstrated how they put these spare parts to use on a number of F-5As...
...For example, the swimming pool at the Shayan is "closed for repairs...
...firms participated and only a handful of European firms were in attendance, the event was a direct attempt to reconnect Iran to the Western aerospace community...
...Kish Island started to make a comeback in 1989, when it was designated as one of only three government-mandated free trade zones created to attract more tourists and Western investment...
...The mullahs want an exchange—a reversal of Aghajari's death sentence in return for Khatami's withdrawing these two bills from the legislative agenda...
...equipment...
...Despite the age of these aircraft and the increasing problems associated with maintaining them, no one wants to make a change to another pedigree or design—Russian, French, or otherwise...
...Sabet and other representatives of Kish's tourist industry have been lobbying for exceptions to the country's strict Islamic regulations, but they have been thwarted...
...They re-manufactured the standard model of the aircraft to add a rear seat, creating modified F-5B two-seat fighter/trainers...
...BY REUBEN F. JOHNSON Kish Island, Iran LATE LAST YEAR, despite embargoes and the country's self-imposed isolation since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran decided to host its first air show...
...One reason appears to be a strong attachment by both Iranian pilots and aerospace officials to their U.S...
...However, one is encouraged by how unpopular the clerics are among the general population, where one also finds genuine admiration for Americans...
...The hotel's architecture and exotic landscaping were copied from the famous ancient city Persepolis in the Iranian province of Shiraz...
...From an original native settlement of 2,500, the island's population has swelled to over 15,000, some of whom have found work with European oil companies and other foreign business ventures that have set up offices here...
...Although no U.S...
...Add to the mix the fact that the Aghazadeh, as the sons of the mullahs are called, are about the only young people getting wealthy in today's Iran...
...The sentence was in response to a speech Aghajari gave last year in which he observed that Muslims are not "monkeys" and should not "blindly" follow every ruling of the unelected clerics...
...The same forces that determine the fate of Iran as a nation will determine the ultimate fate of its defense and aerospace industry...
...When the shah's government fell, Iran was left with an arsenal of mostly U.S.-made fighter aircraft, including Northrop F-5s, McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantoms, and the famous Grumman F-14 Tomcat that was featured in Top Gun...
...Kish Island became a ghost town and remained so for about ten years...
...Kish Island, however, is also attracting the kind of reform-minded individuals the mullahs view as a threat to clerical authorities...
...What has ensued is a government crisis with multiple resignations and continuing calls for the death sentence to be commuted...
...Religious laws imposed by the clerics shut down the hotel bars, casinos, and night clubs...
...Despite their separation from the mainland and distance from Tehran, island businesses fear and avoid attention from the central government...
...But this commitment to U.S...
...Most of the program's senior engineers and specialists as well as the number two man at the Kiev-based Antonov design bureau died in the crash, leaving it unclear if the program will continue...
...Iran's shadowy network of procurement agents have scoured the world in search of parts to keep these U.S...
...Despite a much-reported brain drain following the ayatollah's revolution, the expo presented an impressive cadre of Iranian designers, engineers, and other specialists...
...As one local official explained: "If the pool opens, then you would have men and women meeting one another, which is not allowed, and then someone from Tehran would show up one day to fine or otherwise punish those responsible...
...The historic capital of Persia's Achaemenian kings, Persepolis was looted by Alexander the Great around 200 years after its construction in 518 b.c., and it is considered now a symbol of Iran's noble past as one of the world's earliest civilizations...
...And of all factors, perhaps the most important is actuarial...
...once lively casino next to the Hotel Shayan is now a video arcade...
...Visitors received a rare inside view of what had been a closed and secret network of enterprises engaged in a struggle to maintain the country's aging fleets of American equipment...
...In the 1980s, Iran purchased a number of F-5s and all the spare parts that were available from Vietnam...
...If Iran is to avoid another violent revolution and actually reenter the community of modern, industrialized nations, it has to moderate the role of the clerics...
...In the mid-1970s, the shah launched a plan to turn the island into the Monte Carlo of the Persian Gulf—a place where Arab and Iranian playboys could go to unwind, gamble, and so on...
...One of the more famous of these is the hotelier Hossein Sabet, who has poured immense sums into creating the island's Darius Grand Hotel...
...Their power and privilege help fuel resentment of the clerics...
...To the credit of the Kish Free Trade Zone administration, the experiment has been a slow but steady success...
...This is a growing and major source of discontent...
...Others are returning expatriates who want to invest in their homeland, but also wish to change the prohibition against alcohol and other laws that are symbols of the mullahs' control over society...
...A number of them are young Iranians trying to escape the more oppressive restrictions of the mainland...
...It had almost nothing to do with what Aghajari actually said and everything to do with his timing...
...They were not being used by the current Vietnamese Air Force, which purchases most of its equipment from Russia...
...products does not extend to the commercial aviation sector...
...engineers who designed and built these aircraft—is nothing short of ingenious...
...Brands commonly seen in U.S...
...Although such expos are usually held in capital cities, the Iranians decided that attracting visitors to the crowded and chaotic megacity of Tehran was not practical...
...Iranian money and orders for this aircraft have been a shot in the arm for the Ukrainian aerospace industry, which has almost no domestic orders for this aircraft...
...Asked which aircraft he would choose for his fleet if he could have any in the world, one Iranian aerospace official smiled and said "the Boeing F-15...
Vol. 8 • February 2003 • No. 22
