Bush menaces Iran with threat of military attack

Like the US-led invasion of Iraq, any US military action against Iran—either strikes on its nuclear facilities or a full-scale attack—has not a shred of justification in international law. Iran has repeatedly declared that its nuclear programs are for peaceful purposes and has complied with the demands of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), including intrusive new inspections of its sensitive facilities.

In fact, it is Washington rather than Tehran that is breaching the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). The US, along with the so-called EU-3 (Britain, France and Germany), is demanding that Iran dismantle its uranium enrichment programs—a clear infringement of its right to develop all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle for peaceful purposes. The US, on the other hand, is adding a new generation of nuclear weapons to what is already the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, in flagrant disregard of the NPT’s requirement that existing nuclear powers progressively disarm.

That Bush made his remarks on Israeli television is particularly provocative. Israel is one of Washington’s main partners in crime in the Middle East, with a long history of political assassination and military provocation. In 1981, Israeli warplanes bombed Iraq’s French-built Osirak nuclear reactor, and the current Sharon government has warned that it is prepared to do the same to Iran’s nuclear facilities. While claiming without any evidence that Tehran is secretly building nuclear weapons, Washington turns a blind eye to the fact that Israel has refused to sign the NPT, has barred inspection of its nuclear facilities and has covertly built atomic weapons.

If Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, it has every justification for doing so. It confronts a nuclear-armed Israel and a hostile US that has branded it part of an “axis of evil” and has large armies stationed in two of its neighbours. Both the US and Israel have declared that they are prepared to attack Iran’s nuclear installations, as Bush underscored in his comments. The US and Israel, he pointedly declared, “are united in our objective to make sure that Iran does not have a weapon”.

Read More
http://wsws.org/articles/2005/aug2005/iran-a17.shtml