India Must Condemn Attacks on Iran

The unprovoked attacks unleashed by Israel on the Islamic Republic of Iran from Friday, June 13, are totally against all international conventions and in violation of international laws that cover disputes between countries.

It is to be noted that there was no provocation from the side of Iran against Israel, despite the massive genocide the Zionist country has been carrying out against its neighbours including the people of Gaza, Yemen and Syria where Isreal caried out relentless attacks and seizure of lands over which they had no rights. Israel has been known as the bully in West Asia, with its continuous attacks on the neighboring countries for the past many decades. It has consistently ignored the world opinion and condemnation of international agencies like the United Nations, which has passed a large number of resolutions against Israeli aggressions, and the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which recently passed criminal warrants against the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials for their criminal acts of genocide in Gaza.

Israel has been acting the the way it has, absolutely unmindful of global public opinion, only because of the support it receives from the United States, the real imperialist power in the world. The United States has supported Israel in its criminal acts in the past and continues to do so even now despite the totally arbitrary nature of the Israel attacks on Iran, even as the US was making efforts to bring Iran to the negotiating table for a fresh truce on the country’s nuclear power programmes.

The United States and Israel have claimed that Iran’s nuclear power programmes are a threat to the Zionist country’s security, even though Israel happens to be a nuclear power with a large number of atom bombs in its stockpile. Iran has always maintained that it develops nuclear power with peaceful objectives. In fact,dung the term of US president Barack Obama, the US-led western powers came to an agreement with Iran in 2015 to ensure that Iran never developed atom bombs and its nuclear power stations were brought under international inspections.

The international agencies including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), under the United Nations, was entrusted to carry out time-bound inspections of the nuclear facilities in Iran, and they had reported that Iran had strictly remained bound by its commitments as per the agreement.

Despite this, the Donald Trump administration that came to power in 2016, decided to unilaterally withdraw from the agreement in 2018. The only reason for the US action was its domestic politics– Trump simply did not want to accept anything that his predecessors had achieved. These unilateral actions had put Iran in a difficult situation as the US and its allies reimposed the strict economic sanctions making it difficult for the country to sell its oil and other exports in the global market. It was a cynical and devilish move on the part of the US, Israel and western powers to smother Iran militarily, economically and isolate the country at the global level.

But Iran withstood because its proud people refused to be cowed by imperialism and zionism. Every effort on the part of these powers to instigate troubles in Iran failed to take off. The Iranian people and their leadership remained steadfast in their commitment to the ideals of the Iranian revolution.

It is in these circumstances that Netanyahu has launched the most dangerous and irresponsible military provocations, to which Iran has fittingly responded with a barrage of ballistic missiles that have brought devastation in many Israeli cities including its capital Tel Aviv, Haifa and others. Sowing the winds of war on a peace-loving Iran, Netanyahu is now reaping the whirlwind.

Sensing ultimate defeat and ignominy in this military misadventure, the US and Israel have started talking about a regime change in Iran. They have threatened to assassinate the Iranian supreme leader Ayatolla Ali Khamenei, which is the most irresponsible statement to come from the leaders of any country. It is to be remembered that who should rule Iran is a matter for the Iranian people to decide. Even this most fundamental principle is being thrown to the winds by the global gendarme and its puppets in their desperation to claim control over all of West Asia.

But this strategy would not succeed, as it challenges even the most basic international rules. The people of the world have faced much more serious challenges, including the fascist regimes of Hitler and Mussolini. Netanyau and Trump should remember the lessons from history– that bullying will never succeed. At this critical moment in global history, India should heed to this lesson and support justice and human rights. It should unequivocally condemn Israeli aggression on Iran and other parts of West Asia. Unfortunately, the Indian government under Prime Minister Narnedra Modi does not seem to recognise its historical role as a country that had, in the past, supported justice and dignity in international affairs. Under the present dispensation, the self-proclaimed ‘Viswa Guru’ has miserably failed in its duty to uphold justice and dignity for all peoples of the world.