Nuclear violence
WILPF joins the International Campaign to Abolishing Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in condemning the US reckless attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities, which have undermined international efforts to prevent the further proliferation of nuclear weapons. Reporting has indicated that the strikes did not destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment programme. Moreover, as WILPF noted earlier, the attacks against Iran’s nuclear programme are not justifiable or lawful. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and US intelligence agencies have consistently found that Iran does not have an ongoing nuclear weapon programme, while Israel and the United States are both nuclear-armed states.
War is not a non-proliferation strategy. The idea that some countries can be trusted with nuclear weapons and others cannot is without merit. As the former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said, “There are no right hands for the wrong weapons.”
The possession of nuclear weapons by some states is the leading cause of proliferation. Theories like nuclear deterrence and strategic stability incentive proliferation because countries that feel threatened by nuclear-armed states see value in acquiring their own nuclear weapons. All countries must acknowledge that any country that relies on humanity-ending weapons in their security doctrines only makes the world less safe, and they must eliminate their nuclear weapon programmes immediately.
Distracting from genocide
But the rampant violence in the Middle East is not just about nuclear weapons. Israel and the United States, which are responsible for the ongoing genocide of Palestinians, are attacking Iran to incite “regime change” and to distract from their crimes against humanity in Gaza, as Israel’s ongoing bombings and occupations of Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
In the days that Israel and the US were attacking Iran, thousands of Palestinians were being slaughtered in Gaza. Many were trying to reach aid, only to be murdered at distribution sites. Others are dying horrifically of starvation, while more still are being killed by bombs provided by the US, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other states that are actively facilitating genocide. Simultaneously, Israel engaged in land grabbing in the West Bank, changing the rules of land ownership to legalise its annexation.
Rising military spending
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) used its recent summit as an opportunity to strengthen this criminal war profiteering, with most NATO members pledging to increase their military spending to 5 per cent of their gross domestic product. This will mean hundreds of billions more dollars going toward the companies making bombs, missiles, guns, munitions and more. And it will mean more death and destruction to the people of the world.
NATO’s Secretary-General, who has personally congratulated US President Trump for his “truly extraordinary” action in Iran and who called Trump “Daddy” during an official press conference, has claimed that NATO needs to “become more lethal.” In an article in Foreign Affairs, he argued that “to preserve the peace, we must prepare for war.”
But as we have seen over and over again, since WILPF’s founding in 1915, the opposite is true. When we prepare for war, we get war. When there is profit to be made from the manufacture and sale of weapons, blood will be spilled.
Cycles of violence
Even as a tentative ceasefire between Israel and Iran is currently in effect, Iranians continue to suffer from the government’s oppression, which has only been reinforced and entrenched by Israel’s illegal aggression. Iranian human rights groups have reported that more than 700 people have been arrested since Israel began its onslaught, and six executions have been carried out based on “espionage” charges.
History shows that war always leads to unending cycles of violence and unintended consequences. War is not surgical, nor does it lead to “liberation,” no matter what the aggressors might assert. WILPF stands in solidarity with feminist and civil society movements in Iran and across the region who reject both internal repression and foreign aggression.
WILPF calls on all states to:
- Condemn the Israel and US attacks on Iran and support diplomatic efforts to prevent further escalation of violence.
- Impose a two-way arms embargo and comprehensive sanctions on Israel until there is full compliance with international law.
- End all military, intelligence, and nuclear cooperation with Israel and hold Israel accountable for committing international crimes and on the grounds that it has failed to comply with its conditions as a UN member state.
- Refuse to provide any logistical support for any further illegal attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, including by denying permission for US B-2 or B-52 bombers attacking Iran to transit or refuel in their countries, and hold the US accountable for its unlawful attacks.
- Call on Israel, Iran and the US to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to join or remain in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and for Israel and the US to eliminate their nuclear weapon programmes.
- Reduce military spending and engage in diplomacy for global disarmament and demilitarisation.