The aerial bombardment launched by the US and Israel on Iran that began on 28 February has, at time of writing, killed at least 1,300 Iranian civilians. Included in this ongoing war crime are approximately 170 school children killed on the first day of the attack when a US missile obliterated their girl’s primary school in Minab, southern Iran. Also killed in the first days of the onslaught was the Iranian head of state and spiritual leader of Shia Islam, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with many of his family members.
This unrelenting illegal war, dubbed Operation Epic Fury by the US government, was launched in the middle of negotiations between the US and Iran. The pretext for war has shifted as the days have passed, but US President Trump is clear he wants ‘regime change’ and an Iranian leader who would do imperialism’s bidding. For US imperialism the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the relative independence of the Islamic Republic and the alliances Iran has made with peoples struggling against imperialist domination such as Palestine and Venezuela have been major threats to its interests in the Middle East and beyond.
Iran’s Assembly of Experts has appointed Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ali Khamenei, to be the next leader in defiance of both US and Israeli threats to kill whoever was appointed if not to their liking. In his first statement as Supreme Leader on 12 March, Khamenei vowed to avenge the deaths of Iranians and maintain Iran’s fuel blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.
One of Israel’s war aims is to destroy Hezbollah in Lebanon. Supposedly in response to Hezbollah firing missiles into northern Israel in support of Iran, Israel launched major airstrikes across southern Beirut. The Israeli army has issued warnings to residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs and areas south of the Litani River, telling them to evacuate as airstrikes intensify. Over 570 people have been killed in Lebanon since the airstrikes began with over 750,000 forced out of their homes.
Iran’s military response
In response to the US/Israeli onslaught Iran immediately began targeting US military bases around the Gulf. Bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were targeted. More than 27 military bases have reportedly been hit along with the US Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which has now been abandoned by the US with all their diplomats withdrawn from the country. Iran targeted radar sites across the Gulf which are connected with the operation of the US’s missile defence system, THAAD, satellite imagery shows that the Iranian attacks have caused major damage to these radar sites. At the very least the operation of the THAAD system has been severely compromised. The Iranian military see this phase of their resistance as successful and have said that they will be changing their emphasis and extending their targeting of Israel. Iran has already caused major damage in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities which has been virtually ignored by the media with the Israeli state censoring most media coverage.
Up to now the US has admitted seven military deaths in an attack on their military base in Kuwait with over 100 injured.
Catastrophic consequences
The immediate economic effects of the US’s attack on Iran has been the soaring price of oil. Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz since early March. This narrow passage of water connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea and normally sees about 20 million barrels of oil and 20% of global liquefied natural gas supplies pass through it every day. The price of crude oil has increased since 28 February by over 40% which is starting to affect imperialist economies. The boss of Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, has warned of ‘catastrophic consequences’ if the war drags on. This has led to the International Energy Agency announcing on 11 March that it would release 400 million barrels of oil from its emergency reserves. The Agency’s 32 member states agreed to release these record amounts of oil in a bid to stabilise oil prices.
Clearly US imperialism thought that a ‘shock and awe’ attack on Iran with overwhelming military power would quickly defeat the Iranian military and prevent it from closing the Strait of Hormuz. This has failed, leading to Trump making several contradictory comments about when the US led attack will end. The breakdown of Iranian civil society and balkanisation of Iran are considered legitimate outcomes by the US and Zionism. The US has held talks with reactionary bourgeois politicians in Iraqi Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani and Bafel Talabani, as well as Mustafa Hijri of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, in a bid to convince Kurdish militant groups in Iraq to launch a ground invasion of Iran, but this has not materialised. Duran Kalkan, a senior commander in the Kurdistan Workers Party, warned that the current war is a continuation of the decades-long imperialist redivision of the Middle East dating back to the 1990s Gulf War: ‘This war didn’t start ten days ago or eleven days ago. It has been going on for 36 years… We are against it. As a movement, as a people, we oppose it… This war brings no benefit or advantage to the peoples of the Middle East.’
Labour’s complicity
The British Labour government has made great play of making it known that it refused to be involved in the initial attack on Iran, citing supposed concerns about breaking ‘international law’. The reality was, as leaks from meetings of the National Security Council show, that the government knew about the planned attack at least seventeen days before it was launched and although it knew it was illegal under ‘international law’, it spent time and effort manoeuvring to be able to actually support the US’s military actions. The US wanted to use airfields at RAF Fairford in England and Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands in the launch of its initial attacks; this was refused by the Labour government, but the day after on 1 March it gave the US permission to use British bases to launch strikes against Iran for supposedly ‘defensive purposes’.
From 1 March, British RAF planes immediately scrambled to intercept Iranian drones fired at US bases in the Gulf states and at Israel, reportedly shooting down drones over Jordan, Iraq and Qatar. The position of the Labour government now, as expressed by Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy is that it is perfectly ‘legal’ for Britain to engage in attacks on Iran. Lammy has gone so far as to say that British military strikes inside Iran would be lawful if carried out to stop attacks on British personnel or allies. He declared, ‘It is entirely legal to protect our people and protect our staff, and therefore all operational capability is available to us in those circumstances.’ This now includes the threat of British attacks on missile bases inside Iran. When asked whether British aircraft could strike Iranian bases in anticipation of attacks, Lammy stated, ‘It is my understanding that that would be legal.’
Defence Secretary John Healey backed up these threats from British imperialist forces by refusing to rule out participation in direct strikes, saying that ‘as circumstances in any conflict change, you’ve got to be willing to adapt the action you take’. As we reported in FRFI 310, at the beginning of the year Britain had increased the number of its fighter jets in Qatar, before sending four more Typhoons at the beginning of March. It had also increased its military presence in Cyprus with the arrival of two Wildcat helicopters which can shoot down drones. The destroyer HMS Dragon has also now set sail for the eastern Mediterranean.
The interception of Iranian drones by the RAF along with a military build-up and military threats from the Labour government against Iran constitute clear support and involvement in the ‘illegal’ and unprovoked US/Israeli attack. Under international law Iran has the right to self-defence. Iran’s retaliation to the attacks from Israel and the US with missile and drone attacks on US military bases in the Gulf states and on Israel are fully justified defensive military actions. Iranian attacks on British military bases in the region, such as missile strikes against British bases in Erbil and Baghdad on 11 March, are also justified.
As communists in Britain, we oppose British imperialism’s role in the onslaught and condemn the reactionary Labour government.
Hands Off Iran!
British imperialism out of the Middle East!
