[antiwar-van] MAWO/ICAW statement: Hands Off Iran!

Tue Feb 7 01:05:25 PST 2012

Mobilization Against War &
Occupation ~ MAWO

www.mawovancouver.org
| info at mawovancouver.org

Iranian Community Against War ~ ICAW

www.icawvancouver.com

>> Mobilization Against War &
Occupation & Iranian Community Against War 
Joint Statement ~
Hands Off Iran! 

February 1, 2012 

Once again the
United States and its little imperialist stooges like the UK, France
and Canada are about to create another bloodbath in the Middle East,
as they prepare for war and destruction against Iran. Iran is an
independent sovereign country, whose heroic people have stood up for
more than three decades against the U.S. and other imperialist
countries aggression and intimidation. The Iranian people have been
targeted simply for exercising their inalienable right to
self-determination and living with dignity by rejecting imperialist
bullying and domination. For more than thirty years, the U.S. and its
allies have imposed all kinds of sanctions, war, sabotage and terror
on the people of Iran, but they have never been able to force them to
accept the terms and rules of imperial powers. 

Iran is the
most important target of the U.S. in the Middle East and North
Africa. Without bringing Iran to its knees it is not possible for
imperialists to roll back the dynamism of growing anti-imperialist
sentiment in the whole region. The United States' fundamental goal is
for regime change in Iran. With a politically independent Iran, a
powerful country in the Middle East, imperialists are not able to
bring back their total hegemony to the Middle East, like they had
before the great Iranian revolution of 1979. That revolution changed
the relationship and balance of forces, if not completely, than
indeed significantly, in favour of oppressed and working people of
the Middle East, South Asia, as well as East, West and North Africa.
Today, the message of the Iranian people to all oppressed nations of
the world is much more powerful than anytime before. If thirty years
ago the message was that it is possible to overthrow imperialist
domination and get rid of puppet regimes; today the message is that
countries under all kinds of imperialist pressure can advance
independently in medicine, higher education and all practical and
theoretical fields of science. This is what is frightening
imperialists the most: that we do not need them for our development.
Waging war with Iran is not only for restoring imperialist hegemony
in the region and/or paving the road for the grand strategy of the US
and Europe to move and isolate their powerful rivals, China and
Russia. It is also to make sure the message of the Iranian people
does not become a further aspiration for all oppressed nations to
confront imperialist domination like we saw in last year in Tunisia,
Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Morocco and
Algeria. Today imperialists are frightened and shaken to their bones!

In order for the U.S. and other
imperialists to conduct a bloody war against Iran, they need to
manipulate and shape public opinion in their respective countries and
around the world. The ugly and completely deceptive campaign against
Iran has moved from a hideous campaign to a tragicomedy. For decades
Western powers filled our ears with how important and decisive it is
to fight Iran, as the so-called centre of training and exporting
terrorists, and put Iran with North Korea and Iraq in an “Axis of
Evil”. For a decade now they have been drumming up fear about the
danger of Iran's peaceful nuclear activities. Ignoring that even if
Iran somehow obtained an atomic bomb, how could they possibly use it
against the 400 Israeli and 2,000 American nuclear warheads and their
sophisticated nuclear defence technology? However, apparently this
manipulation is not enough, now we have very recently learned from
Mr. Panetta, the U.S. Secretary of Defence, that the United States is
under threat of attack from Iran! So we are seeing the victimizer
trying to paint itself as the victim and turning the victim into a
menace. Ironically and hypocritically Israel, who is warning other
countries of the region and the whole world about the dangers of
Iran, is not a signer of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),
which does not seem to matter to any of its allies. Shouldn't we be
more concerned about a heavily nuclear-armed Israel, which has
established itself as an aggressor and war monger against Palestinian
and Arab countries for more than 6 decades? 

We need to
realize by now that the U.S. and other imperial countries' ugly and
untruthful campaign against Iran, is precisely the same as their
world wide racist campaign of Islamophobia. It is all about
domination and imperialist hegemony for the elimination of all
resistance against imperialism that is gaining popularity in
countries with Muslim populations. We have to be vigilant about
imperialist tricks and manipulation while we are fighting back
against war mongers. The focus today is not the nature of this or
that regime, in this case namely Iran, but to oppose an imminent
imperialist war drive against Iran. Like their campaigns against
Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, as well as Syria, the U.S. policy of
“regime change” can only bring devastation to the people of
oppressed nations. To call for a dictatorial regime to be condemned
or for regime change in Iran, from outside that country, is against
the principal of self-determination of sovereign nations.
Self-determination means it is up to the Iranian people to decide how
to conduct their internal affairs including the form of government
and social order. For those who are, out naivety or desperation,
focusing their campaign against the government of Iran - we must
remind them that true regime change from outside of Iran is only
possible through imperialist military intervention, period. Therefore
no matter what nice words they use against sanctions and military
intervention as soon as they are distracted from the main focus
against foreign intervention, and begin talking about regime change,
they are willingly or unwillingly on the same side as the imperialist
campaign for the destruction of Iran. 

Iran is not a threat to
anyone. Iran is simply the target of imperialist powers because of
its independence, geographical importance and political weight and
influence in the whole region and beyond. Iran is surrounded by
dozens of U.S. military bases all for their preparations to attack
Iran. We must demand unconditionally that the U.S., UN Security
Council, and EU end their sanctions on Iran. Stop assassinations of
Iranian scientists and stop intervention in Iran. We must demand
U.S., NATO and all imperialist out of the Middle East and North
Africa and as well as an immediate end to the occupation of
Afghanistan, Iraq and ending of interference in Pakistan, Libya and
Syria. 

U.S. Hands Off Iran! 
U.S. Out of the Middle East
and North Africa! 

Mobilization Against War &
Occupation (MAWO)
www.mawovancouver.org 
Iranian Community
Against War (ICAW) 
www.icawvancouver.com 

** Read the statement online at:

http://mawovancouver.org/articles/statements/120201-mawo-nowaroniran.html

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