TRAFFIC CHAOS, IRANIAN PRESIDENT’S VISIT, AND SECURITY CONCERNS
The closure of roads in connection with the visit of the Iranian President days ago, without prior warning during the evening rush hour, caused major traffic blocks and incensed the public. At some points, traffic was at a standstill for nearly an hour and a half. Unsurprisingly many motorists vented their anger by honking horns at the motorcade of the Iranian Leader who arrived in Lanka to inaugurate the Uma Oya Project.
Work on the Uma Oya Project commenced in 2010 with Iranian technical assistance and was valued at US$ 514 million. It was a time when Western countries were pushing human rights charges against our country, rather than offering help for the country’s development after the devastating LTTE insurgency.
Other than the Uma Oya Multipurpose Development project, Iran also helped set up a 90-100 megawatt hydroelectric power plant in the Central Province. It also invested in our oil refineries. Its investments helped double the Sri Lankan oil production capacity. Iran has also invested in rural electrification projects. These projects made Iran one of Sri Lanka’s largest aid donors.
At the time Western donors were threatening to cut aid to Sri Lanka because of the civil war with separatist rebels, the Treasury said foreign aid would have almost halved if Iran had not chipped in with US$ 450 million to build a hydropower project and upgrade the island’s sole oil refinery.
Iran however has never attempted to advertise its help for this country and neither did authorities here. What many Lankans may not know, is that during the LTTE insurgency, cash-strapped Lanka secretly approached Iran for low-interest loans to purchase electronic surveillance aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles after the devastating LTTE attack on the Sri Lankan Air Force.
Iran not only agreed to covertly issue the loan, but also invited selected Sri Lankan officers for military training.
Scarcely a week ago Iran’s Consulate in Syria was attacked by Israeli forces. Iran responded by sending waves of drones and missiles aimed at Israel in a counter-strike. In turn it led to Israel attacking areas close to Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Several Iranian scientists attached to the Iranian nuclear programme has also been assassinated. The Head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’, Major General Qassem Soleimani was recently assassinated in Syria.
There was every chance an attempt could be made to attack the Iranian President while he was in our country. Hence they stepped up security during the presidential visit.
Since the change of regime in Iran following the overthrow of the Shah, the US and West European nations have imposed all manner of sanctions on that country. The US and the West portray the Iranian nuclear programme as a military threat. Iran meanwhile says the programme is purely for civilian purposes.
The situation is paradoxical in that the US is the only country in the world to nuclear bomb a civilian population -Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japanduring the closing stages of World War II.
As reported in the media, many Western states had over the past weeks been bringing enormous pressure on our government to cancel the Iranian President’s visit.
Our government must be congratulated for standing up for the right of our country to take independent decisions as to who may, or may not visit this island. By standing up to the interference, the government is indicating it will act in the best interests of our people.
Unfortunately hardly any of our people realised the context in which the stringent security measures had to be put in place during the Iranian president’s visit. Hence the rude and embarrassing honking of horns at the Iranian presidential motorcade.
Perhaps our security establishment will in the future take the public into their confidence and inform us in a timely manner why roads may be closed and apologise for the inconvenience beforehand.
It will also save us from shaming ourselves, and our visitors/benefactors from embarrassment.