No War on Iran! End the nuclear Hypocrisy!

2 weeks ago 30

With Donald Trump issuing a two-week deadline to decide whether he will join Israel’s illegal war on Iran, it is an absolutely critical time to pressure the British government to step back from the brink, work to secure a ceasefire and the return to talks. The alternative is a disastrous escalation that risks dragging the world into war, which risks nuclear confrontation.

Trump’s shocking threats to assassinate , Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader and calling for Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender’ show that Israel’s illegal war on Iran has nothing to do with Iran’s nuclear programme. Instead it has everything to do with US and Israeli plans for regime change in Iran, intensifying the genocidal war against the Palestinians and reasserting US global dominance.

Hundreds have already been killed in both Iran and Israel. Israel’s bombing of Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, has, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) caused ‘localised radioactivity’ leaks.

IAEA Director-General, Rafael Grossi, has condemned Israel’s actions, arguing that ‘nuclear facilities must never be attacked, regardless of the context or circumstances’. Military escalation, he states, ‘increases the chance of a radiological release with serious consequences for people and the environment.’

Despite this, it’s being widely circulated in the media that Israel wants the US to use its 30,000lb ‘bunker-buster’ bombs to destroy the underground Fordow nuclear facility. Such a huge attack could also release radiation into the atmosphere. These B2 bombers are already stationed at the joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia, a strategic location from which to launch a military assault on Iran.

Israel argues – and it’s backed by the US and the full G7 – that it has a right to defend itself and that Iran’s nuclear programme represents a direct threat to it. Yet the assessment of the IAEA and US intelligence is that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons.

And in reality, Israel’s actions are far more likely to push Iran towards developing them.

In response to the escalation, Iran’s parliament is preparing legislation to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The NPT sets out a framework, whereby nuclear weapons states agree to take steps to disarm their nuclear weapons, whilst non-nuclear weapons states can develop peaceful, civilian nuclear energy but must agree not to develop nuclear weapons.

Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s President, has insisted Iran does not intend to develop nuclear weapons and reports indicate Iran is keen to reconvene talks with the US, providing there is a ceasefire.

But this is a very concerning development that is clearly a direct consequence of Israel’s military attacks. With its overwhelming military power, US threats to join Israel’s war on Iran and assassinate its leader are also likely to precipitate Iran’s withdrawal from the Treaty.

A Guardian editorial puts it this way: ‘Israel does not appear to be striking Iran because US nuclear diplomacy has failed but because it fears it might succeed.’

I think that’s giving too much credit to Trump. Because the reality is, that both Trump and Netanyahu have repeatedly sabotaged diplomatic efforts to ensure Iran doesn’t develop weapons-grade enriched uranium.

In 2018 Donald Trump’s trashed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA). This was set up precisely to facilitate a peaceful process of ensuring Iran complied with strict controls of its nuclear facilities in exchange for the US lifting its crippling sanctions on Iran. Whilst Iran met all the JCPoA terms, restricting its uranium enrichment, reducing its stockpiles and cooperating with wide-ranging inspections, President Trump reneged on the deal and refused to lift the sanctions. Instead, he intensified them.

What about Israel? When talks resumed under President Biden in 2021, there is strong evidence Israel carried out a cyber attack on the Natanz nuclear facility to sabotage the talks.

And of course, this is all total nuclear hypocrisy.

Israel has over 90 nuclear weapons, totally refuses any weapons inspections. And its Heritage Minister, Amihai Eliyahu threatened to use them against the people of Gaza. Yet there is no public statement from the G7 for Israel to disarm.

This also exposes the wider nuclear hypocrisy of all the nuclear weapons states, including those that have signed up to the NPT. Instead of taking steps to disarm its nuclear weapons, these states are increasing and modernising their arsenals. Britain, for instance, continues to replace its nuclear-armed submarines. In fact, the recommendations of the government’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) call for ‘a landmark shift’ in Britain’s nuclear weapons towards ‘war-fighting readiness’. It also calls for Britain to ‘enhance UK participation in NATO’s nuclear mission’ – hence Starmer’s talks with Donald Trump to buy nuclear-capable F35A fighter jets so that it can launch their B61-12 ‘tactical’ nuclear bombs.

The SDR also argues that British nuclear weapons should be used to stop other countries’ nuclear proliferation. It specifically refers to the right of Britain – as part of NATO – to launch a nuclear attack against a non-nuclear weapons state that is a signatory to the NPT that is in ‘material breach of those non-proliferation obligations’. In this current situation, how is Iran supposed to interpret such nuclear threats?

This takes nuclear hypocrisy to an obscene level. And of course, such threats do nothing to counter proliferation and everything to drive it.

So on all levels this illegal war on Iran is a disaster.

We all remember the horror of the Iraq war, a country half the size of Iran, in which over half a million people were killed and millions displaced in order for the US to secure control of that oil-rich country. We also remember, that the US had its sights on Iran back then too, along with North Korea, as the so-called ‘axis of evil’.

Today, a US-led war on Iran would draw in other nuclear weapons states, increasing the threat of global nuclear war.

The seriousness of this situation cannot be over-stated.

So it is absolutely critical that all those who want an end to Israel’s genocide and its greater military expansionism, now maximise the pressure on the British government to withdraw its RAF Typhoons from Diego-Garcia and work to secure a ceasefire. It must rachet up diplomatic and economic pressure on nuclear-armed, genocidal Israel. This means increasing sanctions and securing a full arms embargo.

But it also needs to end its own nuclear hypocrisy – that means scrapping the replacement of its trident nuclear submarine programme and abandoning attempts to further integrate into NATO’s air-launched nuclear capabilities.