 | The United National AntiWar Coalition (UNAC) calls on the entire U.S. progressive movement to immediately and energetically raise the demand: |  | No War, No Sanctions, No Internal Interference in Iran!
At no time since the Iranian people rose up against the hated U.S-installed Shah has a U.S./Israeli military attack against Iran seemed more possible. Following three decades of unrelenting hostility, the last few months have seen a steady escalation of charges, threats, sanctions and actual preparations for an attack. These are just a few of the most recent developments: * Beginning in late October, Israeli media began widely speculating that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was heavily lobbying for military strikes against Iran's nuclear energy sites. (1) * On Nov. 2, Israel test-fired a missile said to be able to both carry a nuclear warhead and reach Iranian territory. (2) * Britain's armed forces have reportedly stepped up contingency planning for potential military action against Iran. (3) * These developments followed widely challenged U.S. allegations of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, an attack that top U.S. officials claim was to be carried out by a hit-man hired from the Zeta drug cartel, known to be deeply infiltrated by U.S. anti-drug agents. (4) * Congressional bill promoted by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee would forbid the President from speaking to Iranian officials without explicit permission from Congress â€" a restriction unprecedented in U.S. history. (5) * In November, the Boeing Company sent the U.S. Air Force the first of 20 “bunker-busting†bombs, designed to destroy underground facilities such as those housing Iran's nuclear energy program. The bombs, which cost a total of about $314 million, are each nearly five tons heavier than anything else in the military's arsenal. (6) * Both the U.S. and the U.K. have imposed new sanctions against Iran's banking system, hoping to economically strangle the country's economy. (7) * Meanwhile, the Pentagon is hard at work strengthening its military alliance with the Persian Gulf states that, together with U.S.-occupied Iraq and Afghanistan, form a military semi-circle around the Islamic Republic. (8) The central charge against Iran has been that it is trying to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran denies the charge, and the simple fact is that there is no evidence to support it. (9) But that doesn't stop the U.S. and its allies, along with the major news media, from relentlessly repeating the accusation as if it were a proven fact. On Nov. 8, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency released its latest report on Iran's nuclear program, a program Iran insists is solely designed to produce electricity, not atomic or nuclear weapons, as is claimed by the U.S. and other Western powers. The report does not say that Iran is developing a nuclear bomb. It repeats past charges; it introduces new “evidence†it says it received from 10 countries, but never names the countries and refuses to show Iran the actual “evidence;†it quotes from intelligence sources it does not identify; and it uses innuendo and political spin to leave the impression that Iran is about to construct nuclear weapons â€" but it tellingly never makes that charge. (10) It is important to note that IAEA reports on Iran have become much more critical since the departure of its former Director General, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei of Egypt. Since Dec. 1, 2009, the agency has been led by Yukiya Amano, a career diplomat with the Japanese Foreign Ministry nominated for the position by the government of Japan, a close U.S. ally. (11) Meanwhile, almost never mentioned is the fact that, as a signatory to the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has an internationally recognized right to develop and use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
(12) Whether or not we agree that nuclear power is a safe energy option, the fact is that Iran's pursuit of it is legal. Meanwhile, Israel, a country with 200-300 nuclear weapons (13) that is threatening to attack Iran, is one of only three countries that still refuse to sign the NPT. What is crystal clear is that Washington wants a regime change in Tehran. Why? Because the Iranian government controls the world's third largest oil reserves, refuses to open them to exploitation by Western oil companies and is the last real obstacle to U.S. military, economic and political control over the critically strategic Middle East. While activists may hold different views of Iran's internal political system, we must all agree that the U.S. government, which has blatantly lied about the threats posed by other nations, has no right to impose its will on countries formerly colonized and exploited by the West. This is a simple question of the right of oppressed nations to self-determination. When Iraq controlled its own oil and insisted on pursuing its own political path, the U.S. falsely accused it of developing weapons of mass destruction, ties to al-Qaeda and responsibility for the 9/11 attacks, paving the way for a brutal and entirely unjustified nine-year war. Now more than 5,000 U.S. soldiers and contractors and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dead, millions have been wounded and a third of the population has been displaced. But Iraqi oil is now open for Western exploitation. Opinion polls show the U.S. public is opposed to the ongoing wars, let alone a new one. (14) Instead, we are waking up in a mass way to the fact that a tiny 1% of the population owns and runs this country â€" the 1% that promotes and profits from war. We don't want another war, we can't afford another war, we won't accept another war. And we don't have to. Like the millions fighting for freedom and justice around the world, we too can make a difference. In whatever struggle you are engaged, please find the strength and determination to raise one more sign, one more banner, one more critical slogan: No War, No Sanctions, No Internal Interference in Iran! 12/2/11 United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) PO Box 123, Delmar, NY 12054, Phone: 518-227-6947, Email: UNACpeace@gmail.com, www.UNACpeace.org (1) Haaretz (Israel's oldest daily newspaper) - Nov. 2, 2011: Netanyahu trying to persuade cabinet to support attack on Iran†ynetnews.com (English online version of Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's most widely read newspaper) - Oct. 28, 2011: Amos Gilad: Iran is massive threat that must be dealt with (2) Reuters Nov. 2, 2011 - Israel test-fires missile as Iran debate rages (3) Guardian Nov. 2, 2011: UK military steps up plans for Iran attack amid fresh nuclear fears (4) The New York Times Oct. 24, 2011: U.S. Agencies Infiltrating Drug Cartels Across Mexico (5) H.R. 1905: Iran Threat Reduction Act of 2011 AIPAC Website, July 2011: The Iran Threat Reduction Act of 2011 (H.R. 1905) NationofChange.org, Nov. 24, 2011: “In Defense of Diplomacy Global Research Website Nov. 5, 2011: AIPAC's 'War With Iran' Bill Passes House Committee Political Correction Website Dec. 1, 2011 - Chutzpah: AIPAC™s Newest Iran Sanctions Bill Will Prohibit Diplomacy (6) Los Angeles Times Nov. 16, 2011 Boeing delivers first batch of 30,000-pound bombs to Air Force (7) BBC Nov. 21, 2011: UK severs ties with Iranian banks (8) The New York Times Oct. 29, 2011 - U.S. Planning Troop Buildup in Gulf After Exit From Iraq (9) Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention Against Iran Website August 2010: CASMII Fact Sheet on the U.S.-Iran Stand-Off (10) IAEA Website Nov. 18, 2011: Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and relevant provisions of Security Council resolutions in the Islamic Republic of Iran (11) IAEA Website -Director General Yukiya Amano - Biography (12) United Nations Website - The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) (13) The Guardian May 23, 2010: Revealed: how Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons The Guardian May 23, 2010: Israel's nuclear weapons: the end to nods, winks and blind eyes Federation of American Scientists Website Jan. 8, 2007: Nuclear Weapons (14) CBS Nov. 11, 2011: Poll: Americans' views on foreign policy
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