Protests demand: No war and no sanctions against Iran!
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O Sanctions, Assassinations, Interven n Feb. 4, activists demanding “No tions! No War Against Iran!” held emer gency demonstrations in at least 70 U.S. cities and towns. There were actions from Huntsville, Ala., to Amarillo, Texas, and from Buffalo, N.Y. to Racine, Wis.
Other cities held demonstrations in the days immediately preceding or following the national day of local protest against the devastating sanctions, covert opera tions, and threats of overt military action against the oil rich regional powerhouse of Iran. The U.S. demonstrations were echoed by actions in Vancouver, Canada; Shannon Air Base in Ireland; Dacca, the capital city of Bangladesh; Calcutta, In dia; and Oslo, Norway.
The emergency actions came together on short notice as the result of a national Jan. 17 phone conference that formed an ad hoc group to publicize the call. The organizations that initiated or endorsed the call included the United National An tiwar Coalition (UNAC), the International Action Center (IAC), World Can’t Wait, Solidarity with Iran, Peace of the Action, ANSWER Coalition, American Iranian Friendship Committee, the Campaign Against Sanctions & Military Interven tion in Iran (CASMI), WESPAC Founda tion, Antiwar.com, Come Home America. us, St. Pete for Peace, Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), Defenders for Freedom, Justice, and Equality of Vir ginia, Peace Action Maine, Occupy Myrtle Beach, Minnesota Peace Action Coalition, and the Twin Cities Peace Campaign.
Opposition to the growing U.S./UN/ NATO and Israeli threats of direct and open military action against Iran will also be a central theme of the March 23-25 United National Antiwar Coalition Con ference in Stamford, Conn. Iranian activ ists from the diaspora who hold many different political perspectives on Irani an politics but who all oppose interven tion will lead at least three workshops and participate in plenary panels.
They include Mansoureh Tajik, an ex pert in sustainable development; Ka zem Azim, a leader of the Taxi Workers Alliance and Solidarity Iran; Margaret Sarfehjooy of the Women Against Mili tary Madness; and Manijeh Nasrabadi, a writer and member of the Raha Iranian Feminist Collective. For more informa tion on the conference, visit www.unac peace.org.
Jan. 16 statement by the United Na tional Anti-War Coalition (UNAC) on the assassination of Iranian scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan and the grow ing threat of war against Iran: A sassinated in Iran by a car bombing. nother Iranian scientist has been as This is the fifth Iranian scientist targeted in Iran during the past two years. This is a dangerous escalation of the covert ac tivities conducted by the CIA and Israeli intelligence and their domestic spies in Iran against the government and people of Iran.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated, “I want to categorically deny any United States involvement in any kind of act of violence inside Iran.” However, both the Israeli and the U.S. governments have ad mitted to covert activity in Iran. Irrespec tive of the actors, the assassination of (Above) USS John C. Stennis sails through Straits of Hormuz. U.S. has refused Iran’s demands to keep its aircraft carriers out of the waterway.
law-abiding scientists living and working in Iran is a reprehensible act that should be condemned by all.
The fact is that the governments of the U.S. and Israel have declared Iran to be their enemy and have publicly stated that they will use all means possible, up to and including military attack, to stop the production of nuclear energy in Iran and to change the government of Iran. To this end, they have admitted to:
1) Using hacking to disrupt nuclear en ergy facilities in Iran.
2) Conducting covert operations in Iran.
3) Deploying spy drones to Iran.
4) Imposing draconian sanctions and embargo against Iranian oil exports, banking and trade.
5) Deploying U.S. nuclear super carrier battle groups with destroyers and nucle ar submarines to the Persian Gulf.
6) Threatening Iran with military attack.
7) Planning to hold in January the larg est-ever joint military exercises with Is rael.
The assassination of Iranian nuclear in disrupting nuclear energy production in Iran. In addition, it works to create an atmosphere of fear among other Iranian scientists who want to work in their field of study. This is similar to the right-wing assassinations of physicians in the U.S. who perform the procedure of abortion, which is legal in the U.S. The terrorists who kill scientists aim to make it difficult for the Iranian nuclear energy industry to find scientists who would work there. However, the people of Iran have repeat edly stated their resolve to defend their right to nuclear energy.
Considering that Hillary Clinton threat ened Iran with military attack, it is dis ingenuous for her to state that the U.S. denies involvement in any act of violence within Iran. A military attack on Iran, es pecially an attack on Iran’s nuclear ener gy facilities, would produce results simi lar to a nuclear attack (U.S. Concerned Scientists report). It would be the most violent act against the people of Iran, re sulting in hundreds of thousands of civil ian deaths.
All the actions listed above, sanctioned by the U.S. government, are intended to weaken the Iranian government and economy, create an atmosphere of fear and dissatisfaction among the people, increase unrest, and decrease trust, all in the service of making it easier for a military attack on Iran. Of course, so far these actions have only strengthened the Iranian people’s resolve to protect their country against Imperialism. Similar U.S. actions are aimed at any government which fails to submit to the U.S. corpo rate domination. This disobedience or defiance by Iran is its real “crime.”
It is extremely important that all in ternational and especially U.S. antiwar and progressive organizations condemn these acts of assassination of innocent citizens as well as all forms of violent and aggressive actions by U.S. and Israel.
1) Condemn the assassination of Ira nian scientists.
2) End all sanctions against Iran.
3) End covert activities inside Iran.
4) End all war threats against Iran.
“No war, No Sanctions, No Internal In tervention in Iran!”
An earlier and more comprehensive statement by UNAC on the threat of war against Iran can be seen at www.unac peace.org under “UNAC Statements.” n