OMNI

IRAN ANTHOLOGY #33

OCTOBER 22, 2024.

COMPILED BY DICK BENNETT FOR A CULTURE OF PEACE AND JUSTICE

 (#11 Oct. 8, 2011; #12 Jan. 31, 2012; #13 Feb. 22, 2012; #14 Feb. 26, 2012; #15 March 17, 2012; #16 April 12, 2012; #17 May 21, 2012; #18, July 9, 2012; #19 August 13, 2012; #20 Sept. 10, 2012; #21, Dec. 14, 2012; #22 March 5, 2013; #23 Nov. 12, 2013; #24 March 5, 2014; #25 January 17, 2015; #26, July 28, 2015; #27, June 3, 2018; #28, June 21, 2019; #29, July 11, 2019; #30, August 9, 2019; #31, August 23, 2019; #32, July 25, 2022.)

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What’s at stake:  Preventing a war should be our chief preoccupation; stopping one our second; except for decreasing climate change.

CONTENTS IRAN ANTHOLOGY #33

Morrigan Johnson.  “China Brokered Peace Agreement Between Saudi Arabia and Iran.”

Alan MacLeod.  “The Shadowy Intelligence-Linked Group Driving The US To War With Iran.”

Abby Martin.  “Did Trump Order Iran Assassination?” [of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh].
Eric Walberg.  [More on the Assassination.]
Scott Ritter.  [Iran is Not Paying Bounties.]

Finian Cunningham.  [US and British “mad hubris in the present mounting tensions with Iran.”]
Gregory Shupak.  “For US Media, Iran Is Always Threatening, Not Threatened.” 

Michael Arria.  “‘The assassination of Qasem Soleimani was an act of war’.” 
Mark Fancher. “Beware Imperialist Gaslighting: Assassination Is Not Legal.”   
Max Blumenthal.  Iraqi PM reveals Trump’s lie regarding the assassination of Soleimani.
Vijay Prashad.  US v. Iran in Straight of Hormuz.
Prashad.  “Trump’s ‘diplomacy’ in Iran is a Cynical Farce.”
Prashad.  “Dossier 19:   Iranians Will Not Forget. The Hybrid War Against Iran.”
Suvrat Raju.  “Imperial Overreach in Iran.”
Vijay Prashad.  “Why the world is watching the fate of an Iranian tanker in the Mediterranean.”       

“Iran charges US with destabilizing actions as UN chief urges restraint.”
Jim Lobe.“WAR AGAINST IRAN BECOMING EVER MORE LIKELY.”
“Pro-Peace Coalition Delivers Petition Urging Congress to Block Trump's Path to War With Iran.”
 “Sanders Launches Petition Urging Lawmakers to Block Military Action Against Iran Without Congressional Approval.”

Local Peace Letters  and Actions to Prevent Iran War

SOURCES

Why is CNN not on this list?  Or the NYT? Or Washington Post?
Black Agenda Report
Common Dreams

CovertAction Magazine
Empire Files.

Extra!
The Grayzone.
Lobelog.

Mintpress News.
Mondoweiss.
mronline.org
Popular Resistance.
Research Unit of Political Economy 

Reuters.
RT.
Sputnik News.
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research

TEXTS

Morrigan Johnson.  “China Brokered Peace Agreement Between Saudi Arabia and Iran Marks End of Era of American Unipolar Power.”  CovertAction Magazine (4-16-23). 

A historic peace deal was announced March 10, 2023, with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran adopting a trilateral peace agreement brokered by the People’s Republic of China.    READ MORE →

“US HOSTILITY TOWARD IRAN. The Shadowy Intelligence-Linked Group Driving The US To War With Iran” By Alan MacLeod, Mintpress News. PopularResistance.org (1-14-23).   Most of the world has watched the Israeli assault on Gaza in horror. As tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced, tens of millions of people around the world have poured onto the streets to demand an end to the violence. But a few select others have taken to the pages of our most influential media to demand an escalation of the violence and that the United States help Israel strike not just Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon but Iran as well. “I might have once favored a cease-fire with Hamas, but not now,” wrote Bush-era diplomat Dennis Ross in The New York Times, explaining that ... -more-

[Two articles on the assassination a nuclear scientists.]

Abby Martin.  “Did Trump Order Iran Assassination?” (12-3-20) By Abby Martin, Empire Files. PopularResistance.org This is Abby Martin with your Empire Update wrapping up the last week of US imperialism. Our first story is about a brazen terrorist attack that murdered a civilian. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, one of the most important nuclear scientists in Iran, was assassinated on November 27 by unknown gunmen. Here's what we know so far. First, only two countries are likely culprits who have also done so in the past, the United States and Israel. From 2010 to 2012, back during the Obama administration, four nuclear scientists were killed in Iran. -more-

Eric Walberg.  “Iran in the Crosshairs: Tracing Overt and Covert Action.” , CovertAction Magazine.  Nov 28, 2020.

The assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist and professor Mohsen Fakhrizadeh has seriously complicated any efforts to normalize relations with Iran under a new Biden administration. Walberg contrasts the republican and democratic positions toward Iran while tracing key historical and recent events all in an effort to provide deeper insight into understanding Iran and U.S.-led ….  Read in browser »

Scott Ritter.  “Saying Iran Is Paying Bounties To Kill Americans Is Pure Parody.”  RT.  Popular Resistance.org (8-21-20).   It was Russia in June, now it’s Tehran. Don’t US analysts understand that Taliban fighters really don’t need any more motivation to target American troops? This is simply politicized (un)intelligence that isn’t fooling anyone. According to CNN, the Iranian government has paid “bounties” to the Haqqani network, a terrorist group with close links to the Taliban, for six attacks on US and coalition forces in Afghanistan in 2019, including one on December 11 which targeted Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, which wounded four US personnel. -more-

Finian Cunningham.  “Hubris before the Fall.” Sputnik News (July 20, 2019).   Mronline.org (7-22-19).
Originally published: SputnikNews by Finian Cunningham (July 20, 2019).

The U.S. and Britain are exemplars of this kind of mad hubris in the present mounting tensions with Iran.

. . .Washington and London’s accusations that Iran is “escalating” tensions are an absurd inversion of reality. Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif just this week requested the U.S. to enter negotiations to resolve the stand-off–if Trump reciprocated by lifting harsh sanctions off Iran. You can’t get fairer than that.

Let’s recall the bigger picture. The dangerous situation has been created by Washington’s reprehensible tearing up last year of the international nuclear accord with Iran. Then in April, Trump reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran driving the Iranian economy into even further turmoil. Such economic warfare is illegal under international law. It’s “economic terrorism”, as Iranian-American writer Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich aptly puts it.

In May, the Trump administration shifted gear and embarked on a policy of what can only be called military aggression by sending warships and B-52 nuclear-capable bombers to the Persian Gulf, purportedly to “defend” against alleged–though unsubstantiated–Iranian security threats.   For the past two months there have been a series of sabotage incidents against commercial shipping which the U.S. has blamed on Iran. Iran denies any involvement and has instead speculated that the incidents are being orchestrated by malign forces to incriminate Tehran.

The seizure of the Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar earlier this month by British commandoes fits into the same pattern of deliberate provocation.

So when Britain’s Jeremy Hunt gets on his high horse of legal probity and righteousness, the hubris is way too much to stomach.

Washington and London have said in public that they don’t want a war with Iran. But all other signs suggest that war is something they are prepared to wage. Maybe they expect that the display of military power and bragging about it will be enough to make Iran cower and beg for mercy. That, in short, is state terrorism. . . .

https://mronline.org/2019/07/22/hubris-before-the-fall/?utm_source=MR+Email+List&utm_campaign=36266214c3-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_MRONLINE_DAILY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4f879628ac-36266214c3-295821469&mc_cid=36266214c3&mc_eid=ab2f7bf95e

Gregory Shupak.  “For US Media, Iran Is Always Threatening, Not Threatened.”  Extra! (July 2019).

Mainstream media articles that function as an “information-laundering service, turning state talking points into ‘neutral’ pieces of data—data that just might talk us into another catastrophic war.”   Shupak teaches at the U of Guelph-Humber in Toronto.  His book The Wrong Story: Palestine, Israel and the Media, is pub. by OR Books.

Michael Arria.  “‘The assassination of Qasem Soleimani was an act of war’.”    Mondoweiss (Jan. 6, 2020).    mronline.org

 On January 5, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Barbara Lee announced that they are introducing a War Powers Resolution in the House. The legislation would remove U.S. forces from any conflict with Iran that hasn’t been granted congressional approval and is a companion to a Senate resolution that was introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine […]

Source

“‘The assassination of Qasem Soleimani was an act of war’: Rep. Omar and Rep. Lee introduce resolution to stop Trump’s war on Iran. “   15 Comments.    By Michael Arria (Posted Jan 09, 2020).  Originally published: Mondoweiss  on January 6, 2020 (more by Mondoweiss). 
Fascism, Human Rights, Imperialism, ProtestUnited StatesNewswire

“‪Let’s not mince words: the assassination of Qasem Soleimani was an act of war undertaken without Congressional authorization, in violation of the Constitution of the United States of America,” said Omar in a statement,

Following the assassination, thousands of additional troops were sent to the Middle East in one of the largest rapid deployments seen in decades. This follows years of saber-rattling and threats of war against Iran by President Trump and his accomplices. We in Congress must exercise our Constitutional duty—and do everything in our power to stop another disastrous war.

Mark Fancher. “Beware Imperialist Gaslighting: Assassination Is Not Legal.”  Black Agenda Report (Jan. 8, 2020).   Mronline.org 

The contradictions between imperialist actions and the legal standards they create can do much to raise mass consciousness and accelerate revolutionary momentum. But this can happen only if people know what the law is in the first place. Imperialists have been vigilant in their efforts to obscure and distort legal standards. […]

Source

Originally published: Black Agenda Report  on January 8, 2020 by Mark P. Fancher (more by Black Agenda Report)(Posted Jan 09, 2020).  Fascism, Imperialism, Strategy, WarIran, United StatesNewswire

The U.S. government has been in the business of killing foreign leaders for a long time–but it’s still a crime.

Although analysts will endlessly debate the legality of the recent assassination of Iran’s Qasem Soleimani by drone strike, the law has no place for crimes of this kind. Of all people, Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 12333 that reads in part: “No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.” Later moves to make exceptions for terrorists cannot erase the original intent of the order.

The Geneva Convention, which provides guidelines for warfare, provides: “…it is prohibited to kill, injure or capture an adversary by perfidy.”  For example, if an enemy combatant waves a white flag, it is illegal to kill him as he attempts to surrender. As Iran was not engaged in active hot warfare with the U.S., the killing of Soleimani was an unpredictable ambush of a man whose guard was down.

More to the point however is the fact that the killing of a high ranking government official is for all practical purposes a declaration of war. It was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in 1914 by Serbian operatives that triggered World War I. Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives the power to declare war solely to the Congress. In the wake of the Soleimani killing, many in Congress are in shock because they knew nothing. . . .   MORE

Max Blumenthal.  “’Iraqi PM reveals Soleimani was on peace mission when assassinated, exploding Trump’s lie of ‘imminent attacks’.”  The Grayzone (Jan. 6, 2019). Mronline.org

The Trump administration claimed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was planning “imminent attacks” on U.S. interests when it assassinated him. That lie was just destroyed, but not before countless corporate media outlets transmitted it to the public.

By Max Blumenthal (Posted Jan 09, 2020)

Originally published: The Grayzone  on January 6, 2019 (more by The Grayzone).  Fascism, State Repression, Strategy, WarIran, Iraq, United StatesNewswire

Desperate to justify the U.S. drone assassination of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted that Washington had made an “intelligence-based assessment” that Soleimani was “actively planning in the region” to attack American interests before he was killed.

President Donald Trump justified his fateful decision to kill the Iranian general in even more explicit language, declaring that Soleimani was planning “imminent attacks” on U.S. diplomatic facilities and personnel across the Middle East.  “We took action last night to stop a war,” Trump claimed. “We did not take action to start a war.”  Trump’s dubious rationale for an indisputably criminal assassination has been repeated widely across corporate media networks, and often without any skepticism or debate.  At a January 3 State Department briefing, where reporters finally got the chance to demand evidence for the claim of an “imminent” threat, one U.S. official erupted in anger.  “Jesus, do we have to explain why we do these things?” he barked at the press.
  Two days later, when Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi addressed his country’s parliament, Trump’s justification for killing Soleimani was exposed as a cynical lie.  According to Abdul-Mahdi, he had planned to meet Soleimani on the morning the general was killed to discuss a diplomatic rapproachment that Iraq was brokering between Iran and Saudi Arabia.  Abdul-Mahdi said that Trump personally thanked him for the efforts, even as he was planning the hit on Soleimani–thus creating the impression that the Iranian general was safe to travel to Baghdad. . . .  MORE

Vijay Prashad.  “Iran simply won’t let itself be hemmed in by the U.S. and UK.”  Mronline.org (7-31-19).

The United States is leading a process to create a naval force that would patrol the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. has said it will send “command and control” ships to coordinate the escort naval vessels from different countries. But there are cracks in the coalition.

Source        By Vijay Prashad (Posted Jul 30, 2019).    Imperialism, WarIran, United Kingdom, United StatesCommentary, NewsFeatured, Globetrotter, Independent Media Institute

This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

In late May, the shipping authorities in Panama deregistered Grace 1, an oil tanker carrying two million barrels of Iranian crude oil around the coastline of Africa and into the Mediterranean Sea. Having lost its Panamanian flag, the ship now had to carry an Iranian one.

It was this deregistration that began a serious provocation. Off the coast of Gibraltar, British Royal Marines seized and impounded Grace 1. The British said that the ship was going toward Syria, a breach of European Union sanctions. Iran denied this. . . .   MORE   [The article traces the complicated tit for tat history.  In addition to Prashad’s opening, I give his closing.  –D]
ran’s President Hassan Rouhani said, “The main responsibility for protecting the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf is mainly with Iran and neighbouring countries,” mainly Oman. Rouhani said sharply that if other countries try to create tension, “they will receive a proper response from Iran.”

Rouhani made this comment as his special envoy to France—Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi—met with France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian to insist that Iran would not allow any disturbance in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan told al-Jazeera, “Any change in the status of the Strait of Hormuz will open the door to a dangerous confrontation.” Iran is simply not prepared to back down over asserting its role in the 21 nautical mile Strait of Hormuz.

About a fifthof the world’s oil goes through this narrow waterway. Most countries in the world do not want to see this flashpoint explode into open war—as was openly indicated at the Non-Aligned Movement gathering of foreign ministers in Caracas, Venezuela.

Iran has tried to be creative with its shipping. It cannot afford to be hemmed in. On June 3, according to Reuters, Hayan, an Iranian ship, left the port of Bandar Abbas for Karachi, Pakistan. Four days later, the ship’s name changed to Mehri II and it carried the flag of Samoa. A week later, Mehri II transferred its cargo to an unknown vessel. It then turned around and returned to Iran as Hayan.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor, and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is an editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He is a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. He has written more than 20 books, including The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations. His latest books are Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements for Socialism and (with Noam Chomsky) The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power.

“Trump’s ‘diplomacy’ in Iran is a Cynical Farce.”  Mronline.org (8-8-19)

The problem for any negotiations is that the U.S. position is untenable. The U.S. wants to prevent Iran from exercising its right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968) to enrich uranium even to low levels. It is this impossible position by Washington that will prevent diplomacy. 
By Vijay Prashad (Posted Aug 07, 2019).  Democracy, ImperialismIran, United StatesCommentary, NewsFeatured, Globetrotter, Independent Media Institute

This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.     https://mronline.org/2019/08/07/trumps-diplomacy-in-iran-is-a-cynical-farce/

Word of U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to sanction Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif did not seem to rattle the government in Iran. Zarif’s own reaction—that the U.S. is “isolating itself”—suggested the tone. Iran would not be intimidated.

Iranian officials echoed each other, saying that the United States was afraid of Zarif’s eloquence. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said that the “White House is frightened by his diplomatic capabilities.” Majid Takht Ravanchi, Iran’s permanent representative to the UN, told the Iranian media that the U.S. has sanctioned Zarif in order to “suppress his logic and his eloquent and persuasive language.” Former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati said that the U.S. does not have the ability to counter Zarif’s arguments.

There is merit to this view. The buzz in Washington suggests that both Trump and his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were unhappy with Zarif’s interactions with the U.S. media. Zarif, who studied in the United States, is comfortable with television and is able to make a rational case against the U.S. unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA).

Zarif is indeed urbane and eloquent, but that is not his only advantage. He has the facts on his side. . . .        MORE https://mronline.org/2019/08/07/trumps-diplomacy-in-iran-is-a-cynical-farce/

“Dossier 19:   Iranians Will Not Forget. The Hybrid War Against Iran. An Interview with Seyed Mohammad Marandi, University of Tehran.”  By Vijay Prashad.     Mronline.org (8-8-19).

It is impossible to predict what will happen in West Asia. Impossible to know whether the United States will conduct a military strike against Iran, which has already faced the full brunt of a US-driven hybrid war against it for the past seven decades. The current flashpoint is over the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), negotiated between and signed in 2015 by Iran, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States), Germany, and the European Union. The JCPOA attempted to deal with tensions ramped up by the United States and its allies (mainly Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel) against Iran’s nuclear policy. Iran, in good faith, agreed to the protocols established by the JCPOA even though it has always said that it does not have a nuclear weapons policy. What has irked the United States and its regional allies has been Iran’s regional role. . . .  To break through the information barrier, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research interviewed Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi of the University of Tehran, where he teaches English Literature and Orientalism and is the Dean of the Faculty of World Studies. This conversation focuses on the unilateral US sanctions policy against Iran, on Iran’s resilience, and on Iranian relations with China and Russia. . . .  MORE   https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/190730_Dossier-19_EN-Web.pdf    Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research is an international, movement-driven institution focused on stimulating intellectual debate that serves people’s aspirations. www.thetricontinental.org

Suvrat Raju.  “Imperial overreach in Iran.”  June 27, 2019 .   mronline.org (7-1-19)

In the last week of June 2019, as this article was being written, tensions between the U.S. and Iranian governments escalated sharply. On June 20, 2019, in response to aggressive U.S. actions, including the mobilization of troops, naval forces, and aerial provocations, Iran shot down a U.S. surveillance drone flying   near the Iranian border.

Source 

By Suvrat Raju (Posted Jul 01, 2019).  Originally published: Research Unit of Political Economy  on June 27, 2019 (more by Research Unit of Political Economy)

Imperialism, Movements, State Repression, StrategyIranCommentary, NewsFeatured

In the last week of June 2019, as this article was being written, tensions between the U.S. and Iranian governments escalated sharply. On June 20, 2019, in response to aggressive U.S. actions, including the mobilization of troops, naval forces, and aerial provocations, Iran shot down a U.S. surveillance drone flying  near the Iranian border.⁽¹⁾ The U.S. government used this as an excuse to threaten to bomb Iran.⁽²⁾ The United States might implement this threat in the near future, setting off a wider conflict.

The origins of these tensions are often traced to the U.S. dispute with Iran on its nuclear programme. However, both the Iranian nuclear issue and the current war-tensions should be more properly viewed within the context of a four-decade-long effort by the United States to undermine the Iranian government and assert U.S. hegemony over West Asia. . . .   MORE

Vijay Prashad.  “Why the world is watching the fate of an Iranian tanker in the Mediterranean.”   mronline.org (8-20-19).

The British, it is clear, seized the Iranian tanker at the urging of the United States. There was no previous British warning that it might enter in such a muscular way into the U.S. attempt to suffocate Iran.

Source

By Vijay Prashad (Posted Aug 19, 2019).   Imperialism, WarIran, United KingdomCommentary, NewsFeatured, Globetrotter, Independent Media Institute

This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

At 11:30 p.m. on August 18, the Iranian tanker Adrian Darya 1 left the shores of Gibraltar at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea. This ship had been detained 46 days ago by British Royal Marines and Gibraltar’s officials. The British claimed that the ship—then named Grace 1—was taking its cargo of 2.1 million barrels of oil to Syria. There are European Union sanctions against trade with the Syrian government. It is based on these sanctions that the British seized the Iranian vessel.

“WAR AGAINST IRAN BECOMING EVER MORE LIKELY.”

JANUARY 25, 2019, JIM LOBE , HTTPS://LOBELOG.COM/WAR-AGAINST-IRAN-BECOMING-EVER-MORE-LIKELY/    With Ben Armbruster.

[see long article at the link]

Provocateurs Aplenty

With Trump in political trouble at home, Mattis out, and Bolton centralizing power in an increasingly hawkish NSC, certain foreign powers with a well-established interest in military conflict between the United States and Iran-–notably Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Bahrain—may see an unprecedented but transitory window for provocation. Indeed, like Trump, both Netanyahu and MbS are facing difficulties of their own and may be eager to create new distractions that could rally domestic opinion behind them.

Bolton and Pompeo’s aggressiveness may also be designed to provoke Iran itself to renounce the nuclear deal or at least to begin testing its limits. Indeed, Iran’s adherence to the 2015 nuclear deal, as noted most recently in a comprehensive memo by the International Crisis Group, is increasingly under threat due to the growing stress felt in Tehran by the U.S.-imposed sanctions regime, the failure to date of the European Union to implement its plan for a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to enable Iran to reap at least some of the deal’s economic rewards, and the unrelenting hawkish rhetoric emanating from the Trump administration. That assessment leaves space for the administration to provoke a crisis, pushing Iran to ultimately withdraw from the nuclear deal and thus providing a pretext for military action.

But it’s not just Bolton. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is a long-time Iran hawk who, prior to joining the administration, campaigned heavily in the House against the JCPOA in favor of hundreds of air strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Pompeo has taken point on the Trump administration’s public campaign to demonize Iran and lay the groundwork for war. As CIA director, Pompeo orchestrated a leak of documents intended to (baselessly) link Iran to al-Qaeda. At the State Department, he has delivered the most hardline anti-Iran speeches. In one last May, he insisted that Iran must accede to 12 demands, including halting all uranium enrichment and withdrawing “all forces under [its] command” in Syria before U.S. sanctions can be eased. He has repeated this ultimatum even though most Iran experts characterize it as totally unrealistic. During his widely panned Middle East tour earlier this month, in which he promised to “expel every last Iranian boot” from Syria, Pompeo announced that he will cohost with Poland an Iran-bashing summit next month that top EU officials say they intend to boycott.

Indeed, Israel has exhibited a new boldness in bombing suspected Iranian weapons sites in Syria. “Analysts have warned that Israel’s new openness [in publicly claiming responsibility for the strikes] could ratchet up tensions, making it harder for Iranian leaders to ignore attacks and pushing them to retaliate,” The New York Times reported this week. Netanyahu himself this week even mocked the head of the Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, in the aftermath of the latest Israeli attack, implicitly daring him to retaliate. . . .

The potential of some kind of conflict with Iran escalating into a larger regional war is very real, possibly more real than ever. Although some have been sounding the alarm, the attention given to this dire situation is nowhere near the level it deserves. Given the national media’s ever-shifting focus on whatever shiny chaotic moment emerges from Trump and his administration, it’s possible that the United States could find itself in a new Middle East war without anyone really noticing it happen.

Ben Armbruster is the communications director for Win Without War and previously served as national security editor at ThinkProgress.

“Pro-Peace Coalition Delivers Petition Urging Congress to Block Trump's Path to War With Iran.”   2019.

https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2019/06/11/pro-peace-coalition-delivers-petition-urging-congress-block-trumps-path-war-iran

WASHINGTON - Today, NIAC Action, Win Without War, MoveOn, J Street, Daily Kos, and CODEPINK delivered 249,000 petition signatures to the House Armed Services Committee members ahead of tomorrow's National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) markup. The organizations called for the addition of an amendment to the NDAA that would prevent funding for a war with Iran without Congressional approval. …(continued at link above).

“Sanders Launches Petition Urging Lawmakers to Block Military Action Against Iran Without Congressional Approval.”   2019

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/17/sanders-launches-petition-urging-lawmakers-block-military-action-against-iran

CONTENTS IRAN ANTHOLOGY #32

[History of US/Iranian Friendship]

[US GLOBAL IMPERIAL AGGRESSION V. IRAN:  HISTORY.   See Anthologies 1-31]

[1953 CIA-organized coup d’état overthrew democratically elected Prime Minister Mossadegh]

[1979 Iranian Revolution and US Embassy Hostages]

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION 2017-2021

US PREPARING FOR WAR V. IRAN AGAIN

2018

TAREK R. DIKA.   “The Coming American Assault on Iran 2018.”

2019

Bolton’s plans for war

WIN WITHOUT WAR Protests

2022

Google Search:  
U.S. Leaves Iran Deal, Violates World Order and Risks War.

US Media: How to Start a War

Peace Action 2019

JOE BIDEN INAUGURATED AS PRESIDENT JANUARY 20, 2021

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION CONTINUES THE AGGRESSION

US PREPARING FOR WAR v. IRAN AGAIN 2022 

Chris Hedges. “War with Iran.”  The United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia are plotting a war with Iran.
Ted Snider.  “Why Is Biden Joining The Warpath Against Iran?”

Mitchell Plitnick.   “Biden’s Words Make War with Iran More Likely.” 

PEACE MOVEMENT v WAR WITH IRAN: FROM JIMMY CARTER TO CODE PINK

Brett Wilkins.  “Jimmy Carter.    US 'Most Warlike Nation in History of the World'.”   2019.

Code Pink, 2018 to Present

END IRAN ANTHOLOGY #33