Hands Off Iran!
U.S. Threatens Iran with Economic Strangulation, Aggression and War
Delegation of U.S. anti-war activists visiting Iran in March, shown
here outside the
Tehran Peace Museum.
On May 8, Iran announced that it would stop exporting
excess uranium and heavy water, setting a 60-day deadline for the
five remaining parties to the deal -- France, the UK, Germany,
China, and Russia -- to take practical measures toward ensuring
Iran's interests in the face of the American sanctions.
Given the unilateral U.S. abrogation of the deal last
year and
its intensification of sanctions against Iran, Iran said it has
to take practical measures toward ensuring Iran's interests. One
of the measures taken by the U.S. is to revoke waivers that had
permitted some countries to continue buying Iranian oil, a
measure rejected by the five remaining members who signed the
nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action (JCPOA).
In reaction, the foreign ministers of France, Germany
and the
UK and EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini released a
joint statement rejecting the deadline given by Iran, while
reiterating their commitment to the implementation of the nuclear
deal.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif later
criticized
the EU statement, saying that it is unjust to demand that Iran
unilaterally abide by a multilateral accord which has already
been abrogated by the United States. Iranian Deputy Foreign
Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi said in an interview
on May 8, "We have not left the JCPOA so far, but we have put
such a move on our agenda and that would happen
step-by-step."
"No country can accuse Iran of breaching or leaving the
nuclear deal," the minister pointed out. He added that all the
measures his country has adopted so far, including this one, have
been within the deal's framework.
On May 10, the U.S. Air Force acknowledged that B-52H
Stratofortress bombers the White House ordered to deploy to
the Persian Gulf to counter unspecified threats from Iran had arrived
at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar the previous night. Images were
released by the U.S. Air Force's Central Command to confirm this.
Trump said Iran had been "very threatening."
"We have information that you don't want to know about.
They
were very threatening, and we just want to have -- we have to
have great security for this country," Trump said.
On May 12, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton
announced the deployment of an American carrier strike group to
the Middle East, citing a "credible threat" from Iran.
U.S. Aim to Provoke Confrontation with Iran
"The United States is moving dangerously forward in what
appears to be a deliberate attempt to provoke a war with Iran,
apparently based on threat intelligence provided by Israel,"
former U.S. counter-terrorism specialist and CIA military
intelligence officer Philip Giraldi wrote in an article published
May 9.
"The claims made by National Security Advisor John
Bolton and
by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that there is solid evidence of
Iran's intention to attack U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf region
is almost certainly a fabrication, possibly deliberately
contrived by Bolton and company in collaboration with Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu," he stated.
"It will be used to justify sending bombers and
additional
naval air resources to confront any possible moves by Tehran to
maintain its oil exports, which were blocked by Washington last
week. If the U.S. Navy tries to board ships carrying Iranian oil
it will undoubtedly, and justifiably, provoke a violent response
from Iran, which is precisely what Bolton, Pompeo and Netanyahu
are seeking," he noted.
Scott Bennett, a former U.S. military psychological
warfare
officer and political commentator, also said the CIA and Israel's
Mossad are conflating and distorting intelligence to push the
United States into a military conflict with Iran.
U.S. Contradiction with Europeans Regarding
Sanctions
and Use of Force
On May 13, the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and
the
UK met in the EU headquarters in Brussels to discuss Iran's
announcement. EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini was also
present. Before the meeting, Mogherini told reporters, "We
continue to support [the JCPOA] as much as we can with all our
instruments and all our political will."
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cancelled his visit
to
Moscow going to Brussels instead where he held bilateral meetings to
share purported intelligence about Iran with UK Foreign Secretary
Jeremy Hunt, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and French Foreign
Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
Pompeo also met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and
Mogherini. The U.S. position is to put "maximum pressure" on
Iran, with the threat of force made clear by the military
deployments to the region.
State Department special representative for Iran Brian
Hook
said that Pompeo "shared information and intelligence with allies
and discussed the multiple plot vectors emerging from Iran."
While Iran was the principle topic of the bilateral meetings,
Pompeo was also reported to have discussed Venezuela, Ukraine,
Syria, Libya and "issues relating to NATO."
However, reports on the May 13 meetings indicate that
the
U.S.
was not able to sway EU countries to back its threat of military
force, or even its stepped up sanctions regime. Following her
meeting with Pompeo, Mogherini remarked, "The most
responsible attitude to take should be that of maximum restraint
and avoiding any escalation on the military side."
"We are very worried about the risk of a conflict
happening by
accident, with an escalation that is unintended really on either
side," British Foreign Secretary Hunt stated. "What we need is a
period of calm to make sure that everyone understands what the
other side is thinking. Most of all, we need to make sure we
don't end up putting Iran back on the path to
renuclearization."
German Foreign Minister Maas said of his meeting with
Pompeo,
"I once again made it clear that we are concerned about
developments and tensions in the region." He also stated that "We
are concerned about the developments and the tensions in the
region," and that "We do not want it to rise to a military
escalation." Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Le Drian stated
that the U.S. move to step up sanctions against Iran "does not
suit us."
This article was published in
Volume 49 Number 19 - May 25, 2019
Article Link:
Hands Off Iran!: U.S. Threatens Iran with Economic Strangulation, Aggression and War
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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