On 13 June the Zionist regime launched an unprovoked missile assault on Iran in brazen contravention of international law. This attack may be the tip of the spear for a US imperialist assault on Iran, entailing mass murder on the scale of that which Western imperialism inflicted on Libya, Syria and Iraq. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu claims the goal of the onslaught is to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and that a desirable result is ‘regime change’; a phrase which sanitises imperialist plans for the total destruction of the Iranian state and civil society. Such an outcome would leave the Israeli state, and by extension the Western imperialist powers, with unchallenged supremacy in the Middle East, with the supine Gulf Arab states even more subservient to Western interests.
The attack was co-ordinated by US imperialism, with phoney diplomatic talks involving Canada, France and Britain providing cover. So far hundreds of Iranian civilians have been massacred by the Zionist onslaught. On 15 June, Netanyahu ordered people to flee north Tehran, an instruction which US President Trump extended two days later to include the whole of the Iranian capital which has a population of 10 million. Israeli terrorists have been active deploying car bombs to sow panic among the people. Zionist forces have assassinated Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists. Trump also used his social media accounts to threaten the Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei with assassination while demanding immediate Iranian ‘unconditional surrender.’ On 19 June the Zionist Defence Minister Israel Katz declared that Khamenei ‘can no longer be allowed to exist’ after an Iranian missile landed on Soroka hospital; the Israeli state has razed dozens of hospitals in Gaza over the last 20 months killing thousands in the process.
However, Iranian forces have retaliated with waves of drone, ballistic and hypersonic missiles, overwhelming the much-vaunted Israeli ‘Iron Dome’ system which is now running short of anti-missile munitions. Social media shows huge crowds in Iran, Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen cheering on the counter-attack. While the Gulf Arab states including Saudi Arabia have condemned the Israeli attack as illegal under international law, there is no sign of them taking action against Israel, and the rhetoric is probably motivated by fears that Iranian forces might close the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil trade passes, in retaliation to any direct US involvement. One exception to the universal condemnation among Arab states is Syria, whose post-Assad government has remained silent. Israeli jets are using Syrian airspace to refuel on their way to and from raids on Iran.
International law forbids both wars of aggression against sovereign states and attacks on nuclear facilities. In a display of the naked contempt that imperialism has for such laws, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed full support for the Israeli attack, saying on 17 June at the G7 summit: ‘This is the dirty work Israel is doing for all of us. We are also victims of this regime. This mullah regime has brought death and destruction to the world.’ That the Zionist state has attacked Syria, Iraq, Iran and Lebanon alongside its genocidal onslaught on the Palestinian people does not feature in this hymn of praise for the Zionist aggression, nor does Israel’s own atomic arsenal and its refusal to be bound by nuclear non-proliferation treaties or to submit to inspection.
Britain’s Labour government’s complicity is absolute: Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer telling Netanyahu on 13 June that he was ‘clear that Israel has a right to self-defence’, setting out ‘the UK’s grave concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme’ and ordering the transfer of RAF aircraft to forward bases in the Middle East region. Should the US choose to attack Iran it will have to seek permission from the British government to use the Diego Garcia base and might even wish to gain access to the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus. Labour would not refuse such requests. It would become a direct participant in the onslaught on Iran.
The British corporate media is manufacturing consent for participation in the war. On 14 June BBC News ran the loaded headline ‘was Iran months away from producing a nuclear bomb?’, beginning the piece with baseless Zionist justifications for war and deliberately proliferating them. The Guardian was no different, describing the Israeli aggression as a ‘war over Tehran’s nuclear programme’. These outlets share the Zionist and imperialist states’ aims of destroying Iran.
FRFI is clear that communists and anti-imperialists in Britain must stand against the imperialist aggression against Iran. Our principal enemy is the British state and the Labour government which directs it. We must demand an end to all British aggression against Iran, indirect or otherwise, and the end of British imperialist operations in the Middle East.
Imperialist hands off Iran!
Britain out of the Middle East!
Isolate the Zionist state, sanctions now!
