The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) deplores the rapid escalation of tensions between Iran on the one hand, and Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom on the other. This escalation represents a threat to world peace; as various irresponsible parties, such as Republican politicians in the United States and various persons in the Israeli government, talk more and more openly of acts like strikes on Iranian facilities, which would certainly be acts of war. Assassinations of Iranian scientists on the streets of their own country are further provocations.

The current Iranian regime has repressed the working class and the left, including our fraternal party, the Tudeh, and has increasingly turned to the same neo-liberal economic policies which have caused suffering to people around the world. However, we note that external intervention and provocations by Israeli, U.S., British and other governments in no way help the mass of the Iranian people. Indeed, progressives in Iran, while criticizing their own government, have explicitly opposed such outside intervention, including the kind of sanctions that are now being pushed by the United States and its allies, as hurting the Iranian people while playing into the hands of the regime.

Further, an accident or irresponsible move by either side could set off a military confrontation which would have a strong impact on the world economy and especially on the poorer countries that rely highly on Iranian oil for their own survival. Iran is much larger than Iraq and much more developed than Afghanistan, and for the United States to get into a war with Iran could have disastrous consequences for all of us. To allow this to happen would be outrageous.

There are all sorts of games and intrigues going on which shape the current crisis. Iranian President Ahmadinejad is under attack by other reactionary elements in his own country, as legislative elections approach. The Israeli government is under sharp criticism from many of its citizens because of failed economic policies that have widened the gap between rich and poor. There is a bitter feud going on between Iran and Saudi Arabia. And of course we have our own election campaigns in this country, with the usual push by the Republicans to portray the Obama administration as “soft” on the country’s enemies. All of these dynamics heighten the danger of a drift toward war. 

The Communist Party USA calls for an end to the intrigues and provocations coming out of the Israeli, British and US governments and political factions. We denounce the push for armed strikes against Iran by Israel, which is the only nuclear-armed state in the region. We denounce the killings of Iranian scientists as criminal acts of terrorism. We reiterate that only the Iranian people have the right to decide what sort of government their country will have, and we oppose activities by outside parties aimed at “regime change”. Iran, as a sovereign independent country, has every right to develop its own nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. As for the elimination of the danger of nuclear weapons, we demand work toward nuclear disarmament across the board, including by the United States. Finally, the CPUSA calls for continued negotiations as the only viable way to relieve tensions in the Gulf region.

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