The Dangers of US Warmongering with Iran

Map of the world with different kinds of nuclear proliferation and nuclear-weapon-free zones as defined by United Nations Resolution 3472 from 1975.

Nuclear-weapon-free zones by international treaty, including territories that belong to a Nuclear Weapons State that has agreed the territory is subject to a zone

Nuclear Weapons State and territories belonging to them that are not in any NWFZ

Nuclear sharing (US nuclear arsenal stationed there for host country use in wartime)  

None of the above (but party to the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT)) Source: Wikimedia Commons.

By Odile Hugonot Haber
For the Middle East and Disarm/End Wars Committees

The US has been taking actions that could result in war with Iran, either intentionally or by accident. Please call President Trump and ask him to create a Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone in the Middle East instead of war! This would be a much better deal for all of us, in the United States and throughout the world. Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414

New noises of war with Iran reach us daily. Military hardware, including a US carrier group and bombers, and a Patriot missile battery, have recently entered the Persian Gulf. US officials have claimed this is in response to threats on US personnel in Iraq, without divulging their sources. In addition, the US has declared the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to be a "terrorist organization"1 and has called for a partial evacuation of the US Embassy in Baghdad. Renewed sanctions have dampened the economy of Iran, a nation of 82.7 million people, by reducing Iran’s oil sales by half. This is benefiting the Saudis (who compete in the same market) while it is causing rampant inflation within Iran. People are suffering.

The US government unilaterally withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran (JCPOA) a year ago, on May 8, 2018.  The JCPOA, known commonly as the Iran nuclear deal or Iran deal, is an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program that was reached in Vienna on July 14, 2015, between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States—plus Germany).

Pulling out of the landmark nuclear deal angered Europe, Russia, and China, all of whom have stood by the agreement.

In a May 16, 2019, Associated Press article, Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohammad Zarif, said that the escalation and the renewed sanctions from the United States are unacceptable and uncalled for. He added that his country is committed to an International Nuclear Deal that has slowly unraveled amid rising tensions.

Other Nations Skeptical of US Backing Out of Agreements

Reaching Critical Will, a project of WILPF International, tells us in their report on the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that since about this time last year, the US government has been peddling various versions of its concept known as “Creating the conditions for nuclear disarmament.” This working paper was submitted to the United Nations by the United States and states that the real underlying security concerns that lead to the production of such weapons have not been resolved.  

It reads:

To get the international community past the sterility of such discourse, the United States seeks a more meaningful and realistic dialogue, one that has a genuine prospect of moving us toward the nuclear weapons-free world we collectively seek. Such a dialogue would address those underlying security concerns that have made the retention of nuclear weapons necessary to forestall conflict between the major powers and maintain strategic stability. This engagement is very important, because continuing to focus on numbers of weapons apart from their underlying rationale leads to the risk of States talking past each other even as nuclear arsenals remain or, in some cases, expand. Our goal is progress, not rhetoric or simply virtue-signalling; for us, the choice of a constructive dialogue is clear.

Reaching Critical Will provided an astute analysis of this paper, explaining:

This approach pulls away from past treaties and the NPT and other nuclear weapon governance agreements. It demands that the international community should focus on "the underlying security concerns that led to their [nuclear weapons'] production in the first place"—as if nuclear weapons were created by some higher being and bestowed upon certain chosen governments, rather than having been created by the United States first and foremost to incinerate civilians during World War II. [www.reachingcriticalwill.org on the third NPT preparatory committee meeting]

President Trump did mention a few times that he would like to talk on the phone with the Iranian leadership, and has also stated that he is not preparing war with Iran. Mitt Romney has suggested that it is “close to inconceivable” that this administration would consider war with Iran given that Trump stated during his campaign that the war with Iraq was one of the worst foreign policy mistakes in American History.2

Meanwhile, a statement from Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu was distributed that said, “We have to keep on strengthening the state of Israel and keep on strengthening the indispensable alliance with America."3 But as Juan Cole’s latest Informed Comment article 9 Easy Propaganda Steps to War with Iran states: “Attention is taken off the expansionist aggression of the US and its allies. Israel’s world-historical land grab in the West Bank and erasure of the Palestinian nation is never mentioned during the 24-hour cable news cycle in the US. Saudi Arabia’s brutal air war on little Yemen is almost never covered. Iran is castigated for dictatorship while Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy, skates.”
 
Pompeo recently visited Britain, France, Germany. There the European Union expressed skepticism about the claims of sabotage targeting oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. The European nations also expressed reservations about a war with Iran.3

Aggressive posturing, such as is occurring now, can generate regrettable happenings, including those that occur by accident. The recent actions and rhetoric considerably increase the risk of conflicts. Why put the US in such a situation, even if the hope is to gain geopolitical advantages. This is a very risky plan.

As women working for peace, we care about the civilians in the region who are always the first and most numerous victims of war. It is time to try to talk and to use diplomacy, reducing measures that could lead to war. The whole region is still suffering the wounds of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Gaza, and Yemen. This is a serious time to stop fighting and to rebuild.

Let us use the available scientific methodology to deal in a nonviolent way with conflicts. Let's advance to the next chapter of history, building a Peace culture for the children of the world.

We should be advancing the concept and encouraging practices that will lead to a Middle East Nuclear Weapon Free Zone.

NOTES:
1 Read Juan Cole’s article, “Why Designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Terrorists Would Paint a Big Red Target on US Troops in Iraq,” Informed Comment, April 7, 2019.
2 Read Thomas Burr's Salt Lake Tribune article on this, published May 15, 2019.
3 See Israel's Netanyahu Stands by Trump against Iran Aggression, The New Arab, May 19, 2019.