Israel and the USA have each attacked Iran in the middle of negotiations. Iran must not fall for it a third time. Negotiation is dead.
Israel attacked Iran during negotiations between Iran and the US, with the next scheduled meeting just three days away – including assassinating the lead negotiator.
Trump then gave Iran a two-week ultimatum to agree a peace deal. Iran held one foreign-minister-level meeting with the UK, Germany and France and scheduled a second meeting. Trump then attacked Iran with 11 days of the ultimatum still to run.
Plainly the Zionist West not only has zero interest in peace, it is engaging in morally abhorrent levels of dishonesty and deception, attacking under a false flag of truce. The idea that Iran should now return to “negotiation” with such appallingly deceitful interlocutors is risible.
It is also plain that the USA has no intention of stopping the attacks. Trump’s statement said that further attacks will follow unless Iran stops fighting. Plainly the objectives of the USA are not in truth merely the destruction of Iran’s nuclear programme, but total victory for Israel in the war it has started with Iran. Trump’s demand of “unconditional surrender” still stands and the aim remains, as I have stated, regime change to install the “Shah” with a Sunni Prime Minister.
Zionist regimes have been installed in Lebanon and Syria in the last six months. They already existed in the Gulf states and Jordan. The aim to install a Zionist regime in Tehran is overreach by Netanyahu and Trump. You cannot bomb the Iranian people into Zionism.
The extent of bombing, and the extent of death, that would be required for regime change in Iran is astonishing. Contrary to neoliberal expectation but obvious to anyone with a brain, the attacks on Iran have rallied support for its government. I find nothing more nauseating than the Western “feminists” who are campaigning for war against Iran to bring about regime change.
Not only would regime change involve the deaths of hundreds of thousands of women in war, there is no doubt whatsoever that Western destruction of Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Iraq made the lives of women in those countries much worse, both in terms of infrastructure and conditions of life and also in terms of women’s position in society.
The attempt to gaslight the public with abject lies about Iran’s nuclear weapon capability is so blatant a repeat of the Iraqi WMD scam that I am astonished they dare to try it. The attacks on Iran are completely illegal – and I am quite sure will in fact lead to Iran changing its mind and deciding to possess a nuclear weapon, which will be achieved within five years.
You can have watched or listened to hundreds of hours of BBC broadcasting on the current war on Iran, and never have heard once that Israel possesses nuclear weapons. The levels of propaganda are truly extreme.
The attacks on Iran are illegal. There is no doubt of that. Iran faces a monumental struggle, but has no choice but to fight.
In the meantime not a single day has passed when Israel has not shot and killed Palestinians in Gaza in the queues for food. The Genocide goes on, and the US and Israel have succeeded in turning the world’s attention and bringing their Western satraps back into line, just when the Gaza Genocide was alarming politicians internationally by its blatancy.
I see much futile discussion as to whether Israel is controlling the US or the US controlling Israel. Plainly the answer is both; there is a deep symbiotic relationship of the political classes in both places. The key point is that the Israel settler colony carries an insupportable weight in the policy decisions of Western politicians. Like all colonialism – and as outlined by Lenin and Hobson – this is because colonialism benefits the personal interests of the wealthy and military classes but is a burden on working people.
I find Hobson offers an invaluable perspective to look at the Israel settler colony. Long-term readers will know that I have stated that J A Hobson’s Imperialism: A Study had more effect on my understanding of the world than any other book. I strongly recommend it (there is a new edition with a foreword by Jeremy Corbyn).
I am a thinker and writer who tries to use my experience to explain and analyse what is happening. I am also a campaigner and activist. What I am not is a political organiser. Those who put together the March to Gaza or the Freedom Flotilla have my admiration, and have skills which I do not possess.
I therefore put forward this idea with no apology that I am not the man to organise it. The British sovereign base at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus is fundamental to the logistics of the attacks on Iran for the UK, USA and Israel. A gathering of thousands of activists in Cyprus to close down the base appears to me the most viable and useful option to cause real problems for the neoliberal genociders.
The Akrotiri base has a very large perimeter and far too few RAF Regiment troops to guard it against thousands of determined activists. The government of Cyprus is unlikely to defend the British sovereign base from peaceful activists. Cyprus is a very easy place to reach.
As our panicked rulers seek to ban Palestine Action as a “terrorist group” – despite the fact they have never injured anybody – it seems to me essential we continue and indeed increase the resistance. The very notion of “terrorism” has been debased to include journalism and peaceful protest. We must not be terrified into allowing fascism to prevail.
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(1) Quite some years ago, I forget the exact circumstances, I remember saying that the only reason for believing that Iran had nuclear weapons was that they would be nuts if they didn’t
(2) I’ve often wondered about foreign military bases – such as Akrotiri in Cyprus: if the local government is unenthusiastic about defending the base against protestors, or whomever, what happens then? As you say about Akrotiri the foreign military mostly wouldn’t have the resources to defend it, and (as you don’t discuss) presumably the foreign military would have some compunction about shooting protestors, a compunction they may not feel at home
Without giving away any confidences:
recognising your user name (or alias?) quoted: do you have a relative (me), currently in the Southern Atlantic…?
Yes/No?
(Apologies if well off here, but curiosity got the better of me.)
I’m guessing that many of the attacks on Iran have come from Cyprus based Israeli jets (at least one UK tanker I had on flightradar take off from Cyprus, circle for a bit then head south to the Suez and then to the SW corner of Iraq). All the time that we assumed Israel was being supplied by air from Cyprus – were they actually stockpiling their slingshot missiles there instead. Aircraft take off, fully laden and refuel, head off to launch their missiles from Iraqi territory , refuel and go back “home”. Absolute disgrace, but the UK has been balls deep so to speak since day 1 of Gaza, Iran and Ukraine.
Meanwhile it seems that the entire middle east US air arm is encamped in Riyadh. If they take out the Ayatollah, this region will explode. I can’t see Saudi having enough troops to cross the causeway to support Bahrain this time as they will be dealing with their own issues in the Eastern Province. Iraq will explode. Jordan – how any Muslim leader can allow Iran to be attacked via their airspace and assist in the shooting down if Israel bound missiles is beyond me. But then how can any Muslim country allow the US to exist on their land in the first place.
Surely these leaders realise that they exist solely on the whim of the US and that if they don’t keep in line they are next. Surely they realise that if push ever came to shove every single weapons system they have bought from the US over the last 40 years has a kill switch embedded to disable it.
“Jordan – how any Muslim leader can allow Iran to be attacked via their airspace and assist in the shooting down if Israel bound missiles is beyond me.”
Perusal of a map of the US bases in the region should help to dispel your puzzlement.
It is all well and good to suggest that thousands of activists should descend upon RAF Akrotiri to close down the base – but how do they reach Cyprus in the first place without being blocked or stopped at airports or ports in the Eastern Mediterranean, on suspicion by the relevant authorities that they are going to the base to disrupt its activities.
How far was the Madleen flotilla from Israeli waters when it was seized by the Israeli navy?
On top of that, there has been news that Israelis have been fleeing to Cyprus. Activists might have a hard time reaching RAF Akrotiri without being blocked by Israeli refugees determined to stop them.
How about Cypriot activists close it down? It’s a colonial humiliation to Cyprus as well as being the logistical hub of a genocide and an unjustifiable war. They elected a communist president this century, so why have they become shy about upsetting the psychos?
Why do you think the government of Cyprus would want to stop them at the airport? And how would they distinguish them from the millions of tourists arriving in Cyprus in the summer? Why do you think that Israelis who are not armed and facing the unarmed, would suddenly discover courage? And why are you attempting to pour cold water?
History repeating itself:
it’s just so shocking in the internet age at how brazen it all is!
Democracy? What democracy… and there never was?
The history you are thinking of is not repeating itself it is just merely following a natural carefully planned progression.
As we all know the attack on Iran is not an isolated event nor has it been conceived and executed suddenly in a few days or weeks. It is part of the plan for the US to continue dominating the world by dual military and economic means. This empire is based on the dollar which is losing its value as the only way of conducting international trade. Michael Hudson in Naked Capitalism explains it very well.
The justification and endless discussions about events in the Middle East, Ukraine, China, trade tariffs and the open flouting of international law is the empire saying I can do what I like, what are you going to do about it?
So Iran is now the soft underbelly of BRICS and a testing of what Russia and China are going to do as they slowly watch their turn will be next if this monster cannot be stopped.
Do not blame the feeble Arabs and European for not standing up to this delinquent behaviour it is done out of fear because as George Bush has said “You are either with us or against us “ and all of these countries know they will be destroyed if they do not obey.
In fact the whole tariffs episode was a demonstration of how to blackmail even supposed allies. Notice how everyone scrambled to bend over backwards to please the now self declared emperor of the universe.
Starmer grovelling at G7:
https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1GRk31.img?w=630&h=420&m=6
Your stating that Palestine Action have hurt no-one is irrelevant, they meet the definition of terrorism in the 2000 Act.
An action, with a political motive, intended to change our governments position, and involving serious damage to property. I’d have to suggest the £30 million damage to the plane counts, and is what has tipped the balance. The fact that the action was so embarrassing just ensures that it will be acted upon.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/section/1
Interestingly the actions of Israel and US in attacking Iran could easily fall under the rule of this law and so does the genocide of Palestinians. But of course all these actions also fall under other even more serious national or international laws. But laws are only to be applied to the weak.
What is “our government’s position” that these young people are trying desperately to change, in the absence of any parliamentary or media opposition?
Here is an answer to your post. The definition of terrorism in the act is broad enough and vague enough to make it applicable to anyone the government wishes to silence. This from the guardian explains it very well
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/22/israel-palestine-action-uk-government-terrorism-sally-rooney
The multiple uses of the word “serious” in that legislation comes across as not entirely serious.
What the rulers are doing with the Act is of course very serious. I mean the way they have written it – the arrogance of tyrannical power.
How absurdly racist the west are, Israel only exists because the west didn’t want jewish refugees – the UK is the main offender in this abuse of Palestine since 1882 when zionist UK facists started stealing land to build phoney kibbutzes and the perfidy has never ended. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/rearvision/irans-nuclear-program/105376834 Listen to this from yesterday in Australia and see how and why Iran even decided to have a form of nuclear power. It’s a real eye opener, next week we hear about Israel’s secret nuclear weapons.
The population in the west are kept in check by a false promise of prosperity which they do not appreciate is based on exploitation of other weaker countries. The MSM propaganda machine protects by repeating and confirming the lies to justify this supposed exceptionalism and moral superiority of the west. When this is seen to be failing more draconian measures are slowly being introduced and dissent will be suppressed.
Most people in Britain do not believe the future is rosy, and nor is any major political party trying to persuade them it is. This has been so for 20 years or more. Most young people for example don’t think they’ll ever own a house or even be able to get a secure tenancy. Everything nowadays is debt problems, high rents, ratcheted up bills from utility company scum with good contacts in the state, and accommodation problems. Companies providing storage units are doing a roaring trade.
And curiously much of the population spends most of its time staring at little handheld electronic devices. That is very similar to being addicted to hard drugs, with the same effects. Junkies don’t tend to be at the forefront of social resistance.
No model of imperialism is applicable that suggests that the working class in the metropoles will go on forever being allowed a high and stable standard of living, paid for out of the exploitation of the third world. Socially the west is dead. It will sink into the third world, and the top decile of the population will go behind tall walls – and a megacull looks extremely likely within five years.
If only some of the rebel heroes actually tried to understand what was going on during “Covid” and with “Green”, they might acquire a clue.
I think it virtually impossible that Palestine Action are not heavily police infiltrated by now. They openly organise direct action via a really slick website with regular training events etc etc, take action in bright red uniforms and film themselves doing it, posting the footage online. Then there is some relatively minor damage mostly involving spray paint while they wait for the police to come and arrest and imprison them. It almost reeks of activist entrapment. I admire the young people doing it but I fear they are being taken for a ride. I wonder how far up police and intelligence are in it.
“I see much futile discussion as to whether Israel is controlling the US or the US controlling Israel. Plainly the answer is both; ”
Plainly the answer is both are controlled by the same people, the same people who control the other “Western” governments.
“Both” is not a great answer to the question.
But as you suggest, it’s the wrong question.
Hello Craig. I agree.
Excellent article Craig, and I agree that Iran must fight – to whatever end that might be – the West has shown in its support for the Zionists genocide its true colours – and with Iran in mind, an attempt at a regime change will take place – even if Iran decides to try the peaceful route out of this conflict, I’m not a fan of the theocratic led Iranian regime – however that doesn’t give Israel and the West the right to bomb it – and attack at will under the guise of stopping the production of nukes.
Netanyahu invoked a genocidal tribal god a day or so before the colony started bombing Iran. He referred to a biblical exhortation that his people would “drink the blood” of the slain. That is no exaggeration.
Yesterday he went back to the “Temple wall”, wearing religious clothing and hailing “miracles”. Never mind that there’s no good reason to think the “empire of David and Solomon” ever existed in the physical world.
Most campaigns of mass murder by the colony are still given religious codenames, and this has been true since the 1940s.
The Iranian regime is “theocratic”?
Regime change IS the goal.
“Exiled Crown Prince of Iran, HRM Reza Pahlavi to Fox News:
As soon as the current regime is gone, we will rebuild Iran and we will Make Iran Great Again.
Like i said,they are setting the stage for a large scale War, it was never about nuclear weapons – they wanted regime change”
https://nitter.poast.org/MonitorX99800/status/1936940582242254926#m
The Tehran Times today shows how money speaks to silence Arab states’ opposition to USA imperialism because they are funding its wars and if they wanted to oppose them they could stop funding them.
“Here are some key entities and individuals who should take immediate action:
– Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) – One of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, ADIA has been a consistent buyer of U.S. Treasuries. Its continued exposure makes it a high-value target in any escalation.
– Mubadala Investment Company – As a key player in UAE state finance, Mubadala’s involvement in U.S. debt means it is complicit in the current war effort.
– Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) – Deeply embedded in U.S. defence contracts and geopolitical strategy, PIF must reassess its reliance on American bonds before it becomes a liability.
– Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) – Despite its diplomatic neutrality, QIA’s U.S. Treasury holdings tie it to the war machine.
– Realize (Abu Dhabi Fintech) – As a pioneer in tokenized U.S. debt, Realize is helping democratise access to a war-finance system that could backfire in the event of conflict.
– BlackRock & State Street – These Western financial giants are enabling Persian Gulf investors to access U.S. Treasuries more easily than ever before—effectively turning them into co-financiers of war”.
The assumption is that they can stop funding them but the whole point is that they can’t because they will end up bombed or regime changed. The so called allies of US are not free to act. Unless everyone gets this we are whistling in the wind. The only way is to counteract force is with force and only China and Russia can
do this either directly or covertly. All else is just so much hot air.
Cue a few false flag attacks in the States, and maybe Europe – to be blamed on Iran – to win hearts and minds and allow the destruction of Iran, along with a regime change.
“The fearmongering in U.S. media about ‘Iranian sleeper cells’ and ‘Iranian cyber attacks on American soil’ has already begun.”
https://nitter.poast.org/MonitorX99800/status/1936939384655290802#m
Do you remember the anthrax hoax at the time of the Iraq war?
SA.
I had forgotten that – but looked it up again.
“On February 5, 2003, as the United States was preparing to invade Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell made a pivotal presentation to the United Nations Security Council claiming Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
The biological weapon anthrax could be delivered against Iraq’s neighbours or the US by unmanned aerial vehicles, Powell claimed, dramatically holding up a small glass vial as proof.”
And all the false information was provided by Israel through Curveball.
The colonialist-mentality shines through in the propaganda being used by the west: Iran is framed as uncivlized savages that that do not respect HBTQ and womens rights, we hear that they are “mooosleem” fanatics etc and therefore they must be invaded and their people freed.
I am incredibly dissapointed in the muted response by Russia and China too, Russia even hinted that they have some understanding why Trump attacked Iran!? The naivety by Russia is striking, remember already in 2012 they effectively voted to boot out Khadaffi in the UNSC and a year ago they lost Assad and now they throw Iran under the bus.
Instead Russia should do everything call out western hypocrisy regarding Israel/Iran/Gaza and the western support on the one hand vs the fake condemnations they level at Russia regarding Ukraine. Iran should do the same, they should set off a campaign by painting the US as a puppet to Israel and specifically frame Trump as a lapdog to Netanyahu to drive in a wedge between Israel/US.
Speaking on BBC I assume everyone saw that they blocked their own documentary on the medics of Gaza.
“BBC drops film about Gaza doctors after delaying its broadcast for months”
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/bbc-drops-film-about-gaza-doctors-after-delaying-its-broadcast-months
And on top of that a new study show that BBC give x33 more coverage for israeli victims vs palestinian victims.
“BBC gave Israeli deaths 33 times more coverage than Palestinian ones – report”
https://www.newarab.com/news/bbc-gave-israeli-deaths-33-times-more-coverage-palestinian
This is the type of censorship, omission that cause “regular” people, that are not news junkies like us, not to understand what Israel is really up to.
Concerning regime change and feminism, there is a difference with Syria and Iraq in that these were not theocracies like Iran. In Afghanistan women had more freedom for a while when the Americans drove the theocratic Taleban out, but once they stopped their support and the Taleban returned, women were slaves once more. In Iran regime change could mean a quantum leap upwards for the quality of life for women, just in the freeedom to wear clothes they prefer.
Trump and Netanyahu started this war for unworthy motives (distraction from their domestic political problems and possible criminal prosecution), and the means they are using are dangerous, and might well make matters worse (the prospective of the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz is one example). However, if it does lead to regime change in Iran, that could be a good thing, especially if it leads to regime change in Afghanistan.
You tell fairy tales – the education rate for women in IRan is one of the highest in the world, they are doctors, nurses, scientists – truly intelligent people. None of you clowns parotting this babble seem to have noticed that the presenter on the first TV station blown up by Israel WAS A WOMAN.
MJ – “In Iran regime change could mean a quantum leap upwards for the quality of life for women, just in the freedom to wear clothes they prefer”
Are you sure about this? Have you ever been to Iran?
Here are some videos of current (middle-class?) street life in Teheran:
https://www.youtube.com/@IranStreet
For more on the BBC propaganda report:
https://cfmm.org.uk/bbc-on-gaza-israel-one-story-double-standards/
A scenario could be that 1 million people die, mostly women and children, while say 5 million get displaced (and this is by no means the most apocalyptic scenario), and one of the possible results could be that surviving women in Teheran who don’t currently wear the hijab but who carry scarves they can pull over their hair quickly if religious cops get stroppy (so it’s not as if there’s a huge problem) don’t have to carry the scarves any more (because apparently the “king of kings” Pahlavi, friend of Zionist genocidalists and the CIA, is a people’s-ruler or “democrat”). Hardly a case of “every cloud”.
This is such a stupid debate. In every country, what you actually wear is a result of factors including what you like to wear and what there’s social pressure on you to wear.
I think that you put that rather well Craig; experience tells us that American Caesar uses diplomacy as a tactic not a means in itself. American imperialism is resorting to ever more ultraviolence as its brinkmanship has less effect. We should think ourselves lucky that the caretaker Kier Sturmer isn’t bombing dissenters at home as he does abroad. I don’t much like the Iranian government yet I dislike the fake one here even more. I wish the Iranians good luck as I do the Palestinians and the Russians. It looks like North Koreans have made their own.
How do you fight a ‘rising lion’ backed by King Kong?
Iran needs to play this smartly. Time is potentially their greatest ally. Trading direct blows with the US could well destroy Trump’s presidency in the US – due to a MAGA vote boycott backlash in the midterms – but that would be of little comfort to a displaced, traumatised Iranian population; with those remaining in the country living among the ruins of a battered hellscape; its infrastructure essential to civilised life, gone, its precious cultural heritage, wrecked.
Iran would be perfectly justified announcing an intention to leave the NPT. The IAEA’s Grossi, is today demanding access to Fordo to do a damage assessment; no doubt to report directly back to his western masters. The IAEA appears to be compromised like every other international organisation predominantly funded by the US. The US, through the outsized influence its financial contribution brings, has politicitised : the UN, OPCW ; IAEA, NATO, WTO, EU Commission, even the IOC!