Stop the War Coalition week of action
Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett
Protest threatened attacks on Iran, intervention in Syria.
Planned
Bath protest at drone conference June 25-28
London-wide public meeting on Syria and Iran June 28
Student protest in Trafalgar Square June 30
Norwich Street Stall June 30
Wandsworth Street Stall June 30
“Independence from
America” protest (Menwith Hill base) July 4
Western threat
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| Iran |
U.S. oil sanctions on Iran are set to take effect on June
28; EU sanctions on July 1.
“Even in the absence of an immediate conflagration, oil
sanctions are an attempt to weaken Iran and are therefore a prelude to war. Not
an alternative to it.”
Responding to the United States and European Union’s latest
threats of sanctions, Iran has threatened closure of the straits of Hormuz.
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| South Central Asia Persia Horn of Africa Somalia |
After inconclusive negotiations by the P5+1 nations meeting in
Iraq, Stop the War Coalition reports, “the UK warned of a ‘25-50 percent’
chance of war with Iran.”
Western threat to Iran
On Saturday, Press TV reported Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov having “dismissed the effectiveness of setting deadlines for the
settlement of Iran’s nuclear energy issue [and] denounced such timetables as ‘artificial.’”
Lavrov said the latest round of the multifaceted talks, June
18-19 in Moscow, between Iran and the P5+1resulted in no agreements “on the
essence of the Iranian nuclear problem” but from Russia’s point of view “the
meeting was quite useful.”
Before the Moscow meeting, Iran and the P5+1 (United Nations
Security Council permanent members Britain, China, France, Russia, the United
States, plus Germany) had met for two days ending May 24 in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
In the past three years, before Baghdad,
Tehran and the P5+1 have held three rounds of talks: one in Geneva in December
2010 and two in Istanbul, Turkey, in January 2011 and in April 2012.
As this engagement has continued, Press TV reports, “the
United States and Israel have repeatedly threatened Tehran with a military
strike in attempts to force Iran to halt its nuclear energy program, which they
(the U.S. and Israel) claim has a military component” and Iran disputes. Iran’s
officials “insist that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran is
entitled to pursue nuclear technology for its numerous civilian purposes.”
Notwithstanding unsubstantiated claims and counter claims , the
United States and the European Union “have imposed tough embargoes (effectively
an act of warfare) against Iran,” which go so far as to include bans not only
on “sales of fuel for Iranian passenger aircraft,” but also on “medicine.”
Western threat to Syria
As with Libya “humanitarian”
killing
 |
| Syria Europe Asia Africa |
The U.S. joint chiefs of staff chairman threatened, after reports
of the “Houla massacre,” that the United States “might take the ‘military
option’ if it was ‘asked to do so.’” The new president of France, François
Hollande, has also joined the military intervention drive (foreign aggression ‘not
to be ruled out’) in Syria, “his country’s former colonial territory.” (More
recent news stories confirm that U. S. militants are on Syrian soil.)
“The Houla massacre,” according to Wikipedia, “was an attack that took place on May 25, 2012, in the
midst of the Syrian Uprising, in two opposition-controlled villages in the
Houla Region of Syria, a cluster of villages north of Homs. The Syrian
government alleged that Al-Qaeda terrorist groups were responsible for the
killings. Houla residents and opposition groups alleged that the Syrian
military and government-hired militias known as Shabiha were the perpetrators.”
A June 13 article by Chris Marsden citing Germany’s leading daily newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, said, “The May 25 Houla massacre was perpetrated by opposition forces aligned with the Free Syrian Army (FSA).
“The report refutes the official account by the United
States and other major powers and presented uncritically by the media.
Without providing any serious evidence,
the United States and its allies claimed that either the Syrian Army or
pro-government Shabiha militias carried out the mass killing of over 100
people.…
“The most important question posed by the Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung report is what role was played in the massacre by the United
States itself.
“Clearly, given its own extensive contacts with the Free
Syrian Army, and the political, financial and military backing for the FSA by
Washington’s regional allies—Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey—the Obama
administration will have been well aware that the massacre was the work of
anti-regime insurgents and not the Syrian army, even as Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton and others called for additional action to be taken to depose Assad.
“It is entirely possible that Houla was a massacre made in
the USA.
“U.S. policy in Syria has from the start been based on the
whipping up of a Sunni-based sectarian insurgency, with the aim of destabilizing
and deposing Assad’s Alawite regime. This, in turn, is linked to U.S.
preparations for a military attack on Iran, which would be further isolated in
the Middle East with the demise of Assad, its major ally in the region.”
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| Europe Near East East Africa |
Relatively recent Historical
context of “humanitarian” killing
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| Former Yugoslavia |
“With the experience of Bosnia and Kosovo to draw upon,”
Chris Marsden wrote in the WSWS article, “this was done not merely in the
certain knowledge that bloody internecine fighting would result, but with the
intention of provoking civil conflict in order to provide a pretext for
military intervention in humanitarian guise.”
The disgraced William Jefferson Clinton (U.S. President
1993-2001), in the throes of impeachment affairs, bombed Iraq in 1998; and in
1999, led NATO, in a bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. The figures of dead
and displaced in these ventures were estimated in the hundreds of thousands,
even millions.
Stop the War Coalition is calling a week of action at the end of June to protest threatened attacks on Iran and intervention in Syria.
Sources and notes
“End of June 2012: Hands off Iran and Syria Week of Action,”
June 7, 2012 Iran / Syria Action Local Events, Stop the War national office: email
office@stopwar.org.uk or call 0207 561 9311
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/action-a-events/local-events/1468-end-of-june-hands-off-iran-and-syria-week-of-action
“Russia rejects effectiveness of setting deadlines for Iran
nuclear issue,” June 23, 2012
http://presstv.com/detail/2012/06/23/247545/russia-rejects-deadline-on-iran-nissue/
“U.S. urges Iran to take ‘concrete action’ regarding N-issue
amid pressure,” June 2, 2012,
Iran and the P5+1 - Britain, China, France, Russia, and the
United States plus Germany - wrapped up their meetings in the Iraqi capital of
Baghdad on May 24 and agreed to hold another round of talks in Moscow on June
18-19.
http://presstv.com/detail/2012/06/02/244229/us-urges-iran-action-amid-pressure/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houla_massacre
“Houla massacre carried out by Free Syrian Army, according
to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (Chris Marsden), June 13, 2012, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/syri-j13.shtml
U.S. in the former Yugoslavia
Early estimates said at least 200,000 people died and more
than 2,000,000 were displaced during the 1992–95 war. Later studies put the death
toll at approximately 100,000.
In May 1995, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
forces launched air strikes on Serbian targets after the Serbian military
refused to comply with a UN ultimatum. To enforce a November agreement taken at
U.S.-sponsored peace talks in Dayton, Ohio, a 60,000-member international force
was deployed in December. Britannica
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