EVERY ONCE in a while, a tragedy unites humanity in grief and sympathy. The Iranian earthquake has been one such instance.
Long after the victims have been buried, the earthquake's political after-shocks will still be felt. To begin with, few have failed to notice how sworn enemies the US and Iran have buried their differences to come to the aid of victims. It is too early to say that the co-operation will prove more than ephemeral. Still, given that Iran calls the US "the Great Satan" and the US has labelled Iran "evil," the very fact that American aid workers flew into Iran is telling.
What they have to deal with may have political implications within Iran. It may be that the huge toll in human life is a simple case of nature's tyranny. But, as often happens in these events, human failings may come to light. Could the death toll have been prevented by better architecture? Did careless planning and regulation expose many more people to danger than was necessary?
In the past, governments have fallen when natural disasters exposed their corruption. Given Iran's internal faction-fighting between reformist and hardliners, the fallout from the earthquake may alter the country's balance of political power. That, too, may be affected by any new co-operation between the US and Iran.
It may even be, therefore, that some good eventually will come of this tragedy. But until then, we are one with Iranians who have lost loved ones to this tragic event.
The immediate humanitarian fallout is that 48 countries have sent in aid teams; and amid the after-shocks adding to the devastation and death toll of nearly 50,000 some survivors have been rescued miraculously alive from the rubble.
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