By Donald Ramotar, Former President of Guyana

That attack appears very much like the US attack on Iraq on March 19, 2003. Then the pretext was to destroy Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction”. It is apposite to recall that none were ever found, but Iraq was very seriously damaged. More than one million died, and basic infrastructure was destroyed.

In the case of Iran, we have been hearing that Iran is days away from having a nuclear weapon for more than three decades. This falsehood has persisted even though the IAEA has repeatedly stated that Iran does not possess nuclear weapons. Even the US intelligence community knows this.

As late as March this year, Ms. Tulsi Gabbard, US Director of National Intelligence, told the US Congress that Iran did not have any nuclear weapons, nor did they have any decision to make one. After her boss contradicted her in public and attacked Iran, she recanted.

Indeed, in 2015, Barack Obama’s government and Iran signed an agreement on this matter. This was called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which imposed strict limitations on Iran’s program. This plan was countersigned by EU countries, Russia and China as well. Iran was strictly adhering to the agreement.

Unfortunately, in 2018, the Trump administration withdrew from this, apparently on the insistence of Israel and reimposed sanctions on Iran. It is clear, therefore, that the issue of Iran’s nuclear capability is not the main issue for the hostility and the vicious attacks it has been subjected to.

The real reason is the desire of US imperialism and Israel to overthrow the Iranian government, and regime change. Israel sees Iran as the biggest obstacle to its plan of establishing a “greater Israel”. To do so, it must seize all of the Palestinian lands and eliminate the population, thus the genocide that is taking place today in front of our very eyes. That is not enough for the Zionist scheme; a greater Israel for them must include a substantial amount of Arab land.

They plan to seize as much land as possible from Syria. They have already taken the Golan Heights and seized a huge chunk of Syria’s territory during the overthrow of the Assad government last year. They also want part of Lebanon and eventually the whole of Jordan. Naturally, the Zionists would get resistance from the people of those countries.

Indeed, all the resistance movements in those places, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc., came into existence to resist the aggression of the racist, Zionist land-grabbing regime of Israel. Iran has been the main supporter of the resistance movements. Thus, the aggression against the Iranian government.

Iran’s support has to be regarded as really selfless because the Palestinian Arab neighbors have been beaten and bribed into submission. Many of them treacherously kept supplying oil and assisting the Israeli racist regime while they carried out a genocide against Palestinians. The US is involved in the diabolical scheme for two reasons. In the first place, the US hates Iran because the revolution of 1979 overthrew its main ally in the region, the Shah of Iran.

The Islamic government of Iran not only removed the brutal dictatorship, but in economics, it took very strong nationalistic positions, particularly as it relates to its natural resources. The Khomeini government re-nationalized the oil and the Uranium mines of Iran. The Iranian regime, in the early period, was very hostile to the US because it felt that the US was the main supporter of the brutal Shah’s dictatorship. That led to the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran.

The US seem to have never forgiven them for that action, more than forty years ago. Since then, the influence of Israel on US politics has increased greatly. Israel, through its lobbying arm, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), had set out to capture the US state machinery. This body has tremendous influence in almost every aspect of US socio-economic and political life. Indeed, it is now evident that AIPAC exercises great power in the United States.

They were able to be in this strong position because they finance all elections in the United States. These include presidential elections, elections for Congress, Senate and elections at the State level as well. Apart from supporting their chosen candidates, they also work hard to defeat any Congress and Senate members who refuse to take their direction. A strong possibility, too, is the work of MOSSAD, the Israeli equivalent of the CIA in the US.

So strong is their control of the main government institutions in the United States that some commentators are beginning to regard the US as a captured state. That explains the continued massive economic and military support that the United States continue to give Israel, a state that is murdering children and innocent unarmed civilians in Gaza. All the talk of Human Rights and Democracy has been incinerated in Gaza and now in Iran.

The USA has been working with Israel to destroy international institutions and International laws. This is seen by the US attitude to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It has banned personnel from the ICC, including its Chief Prosecutor, from visiting the US because he issued a warrant for Netanyahu and two of his most vicious ministers.

They slander the ICJ and are doing everything to discredit that institution. This is because the ICJ is hearing the case against Israel brought by South Africa and joined by many other countries. All because they are hearing the case against Israel. They have sided with Israel to remove the UN’s Committee from Gaza. This is so that they can continue to starve the helper population.

They have replaced the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza with a US/Israeli Committee. The new body’s main function seems to be to gather starving Palestinians with the promise of some food, but give them bullets and bombs instead. Every day, Palestinians are being bombed and shot while lining up for some parcel of food.

The most recent bombing of Iran by the United States was done at the behest of Israel. This aggression is pushing the world towards the edge. It has made our world a far more dangerous place.

Implicit in those actions is a message to all the world, which is, you can only defend your independence and freedom by being in possession of nuclear weapons. Instead of preventing Iran from having nuclear weapons, that US attack could force it to really get them. Moreover, it could very well lead to a proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

It is time to step back, time to keep and respect international agreements and international laws. The mentality of “might is right” is a law of the jungle, not suited for a civilized world.