We, Iranian socialists living in exile, oppose this war and US/UK policies in the Middle East. Massive military build up in the region military intervention have only one aim, to extend and consolidate US imperial power. A war will only have one result: to strengthen dictatorship, repression and fundamentalism.
As victims of the first Islamic state in the Middle East, Iran's Islamic Republic, Iranians are well aware of the consequences of US foreign policies in the last few decades. The US supported a dictatorial monarch in Iran until the revolution of 1979, and then backed Saddam Hussein in a savage war against Iran while at same time selling arms to brutal fundamentalists in Iran's Islamic Republic. That war left more than a million dead and strengthened two dictatorships in Iran and in Iraq. Now we are told that the US is concerned about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - yet all the scenarios discussed for a successor to Saddam are even more frightening and apocalyptic than the current regime. US/UK military presence in the region, new alliances with fundamentalist Iran and Islamists in power in Turkey, and the proposed war against innocent Iraqi civilians, will only strengthen reactionary Islamic states and groups in the region.
We oppose this war while opposing Saddam's regime and Iran's Islamic republic. Democracy in the region can only be achieved if the international community supports the right of national self-determination for all peoples in the Middle East, including the Kurds, Palestinians and Israeli Jews, and stops interfering in the region or giving one-sided support to Israel.
The peoples of Iran and Iraq rely on YOUR support to oppose this war and defend THEIR struggles for democracy and equality.
Workers Left Unity -Iran
Feb 2003
http://www.etehadchap.com
email web@etehachap.com