Escalating Threat of Direct U.S. War Against Iran: Is There A Way Out?

May 16, 2019

Stopping the ominous drive toward a direct U.S. war against Iran demands opposition both to U.S. imperialism and to the repressive Iranian regime.  It demands reaching out to labor, feminist, student and oppressed minority struggles in Iran and connecting them to labor, feminist and anti-racist struggles in the rest of the region and internationally.  It demands explaining the necessary relationship between capitalism and war, and showing what can be a humanist alternative to capitalism.

by Frieda Afary

The Trump administration  is openly taking  steps toward a military confrontation with Iran by sending  an aircraft carrier, B52 bombers and a  Patriot Missile interceptor battery and more naval firepower to the gulf region.  A meeting of President Trump’s top national security aides reportedly discussed a plan devised by National Security Advisor John Bolton,  one of the masterminds of the disastrous U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003,  which called for sending up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East to attack Iran. (The New York Times)

The U.S. claims that according to recent intelligence information, Iran is mobilizing proxy groups in Iraq and Syria to attack U.S. forces.   However even some Republican supporters and senior British military officials say that they have not seen such a report.

The  Iranian government  on the other hand has announced that given the U.S.’s unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear agreement it signed with Iran in 2015,  Iran will no longer abide by all the terms of the  agreement.

Earlier in April,  when the U.S. administration designated  the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a  terrorist organization,  Iranian president Hassan Rouhani declared in a speech on Nuclear Technology Day,  that “If the aim of your sanctions was to reduce our military power,  you should know that during the past year,  we have obtained missiles and weapons that you cannot even imagine.  You cannot stop our military power.”   The Iranian parliament then signed  a bill that designates all U.S. security and intelligence forces in west Asia as terrorist. (  “روحانی:  موشک هایی داریم که در مخیله تان نمی گنجد.زمانه،  20 فروردین 1398)

At the same time,  several oil tankers (including two owned by Saudi Arabia) off the coast of  the United Arab Emirates  were sabotaged on May 12.   No entity or country has taken responsibility for these explosions.  However, sources from the U.S. army  say that Iran is being held responsible.   Iranian backed Houthi rebels have also used drones to attack Saudi Arabian oil facilities.

The possibility of any explosion or confrontation leading to U.S. airstrikes and a full-scale war is very likely.   Saudi Arabia and Israel are  strongly behind such a war and have indeed promoted claims that Iran plans to attack U.S. forces in the region.