TEHRAN -- On July 3, 1988, 290 people traveling onboard an Iran Air passenger plane perished when their plane burst in the skies over the Persian Gulf after it was hit by missiles launched from the American warship USS Vincennes stationed in the Persian Gulf.

Exactly 14 years later, the world knows with certainty that the captain of the ship which launched the missile attack was making an excuse when he said that he thought the passenger plane belonged to a belligerent enemy. The excuse, released after there were already evidences of U.S. criminal intention, could only have been meant to insult the Islamic Republic. A U.S. warship of the likes of the USS Vincennes not being able to distinguish a passenger plane in Iranian airspace ferrying innocent passengers? The captain could have given other excuses.

In times of peace, there can be no excuse for shooting down a plane that is within its own airspace. And, under international law, even if a plane strays into another country's airspace it is not immediately shot down but first given a warning so it can rectify its path. Think of how dangerous air transport would be if the rule were otherwise.

When the USS Vincennes attacked the Iranian passenger plane, it was a criminal act showing U.S.' defiance of international laws. Indeed, it was a clear example of terrorism for in accordance with international conventions states are not entitled to use military force against passenger planes that are used for a peaceful purpose.

The shooting, besides being a clear act of terrorism, was intended to show that the U.S. can afford to disregard international law whenever it wants and with impunity. Terrorism is what it defines it to be and the crimes that it commits will not fall under its definition. For this reason, it is defiantly refusing to be a part of the newly opened International Criminal Court.

The crime, which the U.S. committed on that fateful day of July 3, 1988 is relived in the inhumane crimes it is now committing against innocent Palestinians. As in the downing of the Iranian Airbus, it defies international call to stop the use of force against innocent Palestinians because it has a goal to achieve and international law is a means to achieving this goal.

The massacre of innocent Palestinians committed by Zionist forces in the Jenin Refugee Camp shows how brutal the Zionist forces can be. But, as an accomplice of the Zionist regime, it says the latter has a right to defend itself.

It is to be noted that the U.S. also defended its downing of the Iranian passenger plane as being justified by the then ongoing war between Iran and Iraq. The U.S., during the war, was on the side of the Baath Party of Iraq and, in order to prevent the defeat of the Iraqi regime, it directly entered into the war against Iran.

Ironically, ever since the war ended, Iraq has been the target of U.S. ire and labeled part of an "axis of evil." It is now finding all the means to topple the same Iraqi regime that it supported in the previous decade. Clearly, all crises in the region are a result of the ambitious plans of the Zionist regime and the United States to dominate the world.

The martyrdom of the innocent Iranian passengers is only one of the many crimes the U.S. has committed against Iran in the past half a century.

Early this year, U.S. President George W. Bush, in his State of the Union address, accused Iran of trying to gain nuclear weapons or of developing weapons of mass destruction and labeled it one of three countries that are the "axis of evil." This is in addition to its old accusation that Iran is a "sponsor of terrorism." On the basis of those unfounded accusations and its belligerent attitude toward Iran, there is clearly no reason to pursue the idea of holding talks with that government. On the other hand, the Iranian nation must be vigilant against any event like the one on July 3, 1988.