State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce has sparked condemnation after a reporter unearthed an interview in which she said the U.S. is the best country on Earth “next to Israel,” in yet another show of U.S. leaders’ capitulation to Israel under a president who ran on the slogan “America First.” “In the greatest country on Earth, next to Israel, it’s an honor to be able to make a difference,”…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
By Lillian Hanly, RNZ News political reporter
Prominent lawyers are joining opposition parties as they call for the New Zealand government to denounce the United States attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Iranian New Zealander and lawyer Arman Askarany said the New Zealand government was showing “indifference”.
It comes as acting Prime Minister David Seymour told reporters on Monday there was “no benefit” in rushing to a judgment regarding the US attack.
US President Trump says Israel and Iran have agreed to a ceasefire to end the “12-day war,” with the truce taking effect in stages over 24 hours, following Iran’s missile attack on a US base in Qatar.
Follow our LIVE coverage: https://t.co/f0V5nlsAMR pic.twitter.com/XC4Xld0Q7U
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) June 24, 2025
“We’re far better to keep our counsel, because it costs nothing to get more information, but going off half-cocked can be very costly for a small nation.”
Iran and Israel continued to exchange strikes over the weekend after Israel’s initial attack nearly two weeks ago.
Israeli authorities say at least 25 people have been killed, and Iran said on Sunday Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people since June 13.
The Human Rights Activists news agency puts the death toll in Iran above 650 people.
US attacked Iran nuclear sites
The US entered the war at the weekend by attacking what it said was key nuclear sites in Iran — including Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan — on Sunday.
On Monday, the Australian government signalled its support for the strike, and called for de-escalation and a return to diplomacy.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the strike was a unilateral action by its security ally the United States, and Australia was joining calls from Britain and other countries for Iran to return to the negotiating table
Not long after, Foreign Minister Winston Peters issued a statement on X, giving tacit endorsement to the decision to bomb nuclear facilities.
The statement was also released just ahead of the NATO meeting in Brussels, which Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was attending.
Peters said Iran could not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, and noted the United States’ targeted attacks aimed at “degrading Iran’s nuclear capabilities”.
He went on to acknowledge the US statement to the UN Security Council saying the attack was “acting in collective self-defence consistent with the UN Charter”.
Self-defence ‘complete joke’
Askarany told RNZ it was a “complete joke” that New Zealand had acknowledged the US statement saying it was self-defence.
“It would be funny if it wasn’t so horrific.”
He said it was a clear escalation by the US and Israel, and believed New Zealand was undermining the rules-based order it purported to support, given it refused to say Israel and the US had attacked Iran.
Askarany acknolwedged the calls for deescalation and for peace in the region, but said they were “abstract platitudes” if the aggressor was not named.
He called on people who might not know about Iran to learn more about it.
“There’s so much history and culture and beautiful things about Iran that represent my people far more than the words of Trump and Netanyahu.”
Peters told RNZ Morning Report on Monday the government wanted to know all the facts before taking a position on the US strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Politicians at a crossroads
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour held his first post-cabinet media conference on Monday, in which he said nobody was calling on New Zealand to rush to a judgment on the rights and wrongs of the situation.
He echoed the Foreign Minister’s statement, saying “of course” New Zealand noted the US assertion of the legality of their actions.
He also indicated, “like just about every country in the world, that we cannot have a nuclear-armed Iran.”
“That does not mean that we are rushing to form our own judgment on the rights or wrongs or legality of any action.”
He insisted New Zealand was not sitting on the fence, but said “nor are we rushing to judgement.”
“I believe the world is not sitting there waiting for New Zealand to give its position on the legality of the situation.
“What people do want to see is de escalation and dialogue, and most critically for us, the safety of New Zealanders in the region.”
When asked about the Australian government’s position, Seymour said New Zealand did not have the intelligence that other countries may have.
Hikpins says attack ‘disappointing’
Labour leader Chris Hipkins called the attack by the US on Iran “very disappointing”, “not justified” and “almost certainly” against international law.
He wanted New Zealand to take a stronger stance on the issue.
“New Zealand should take a stronger position in condemning the attacks and saying that we do not believe they are justified, and we do not believe that they are consistent with international law.”
Hipkins said the US had not made a case for the action taken, and they should step back and get back around the table with Iran.
The Green Party and Te Pāti Māori both called on the government to condemn the attack by the US.
“The actions of the United States pose a fundamental threat to world peace.
‘Dangerous escalation’
“The rest of the world, including New Zealand, must take a stand and make it clear that this dangerous escalation is unacceptable,” said Green Party coleader Marama Davidson.
“We saw this with the US war on Iraq, and we are seeing it again with this recent attack on Iran. We are at risk of a violent history repeating itself.”
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi said the government was remaining silent on Israel.
“When the US bombs Iran, Luxon calls it an ‘opportunity’. But when Cook Islanders assert their sovereignty or Chinese vessels travel through international waters, he leaps to condemnation,” said Waititi.
“Israel continues to maintain an undeclared nuclear arsenal. Yet this government won’t say a word.
“It condemns non-Western powers at every turn but remains silent when its allies act with impunity.”
International law experts weigh in
University of Waikato Professor Alexander Gillespie said it was “an illegal war” and the option of diplomacy should have been exhausted before the first strike.
As Luxon headed to NATO, Gillespie acknowledged it would be difficult for him to take a “hard line” on the issue, “because he’s going to be caught up with the members and the partners of NATO.”
He said the question would be whether NATO members accept there was a right of self-defence and whether the actions of the US and Israel were justified.
Gillespie said former prime minister Helen Clark spoke very clearly in 2003 against the invasion of Iraq, but he could not see New Zealand’s current Prime Minister saying that.
“That’s not because they don’t believe it, but because there would be a risk of a backhand from the United States.
“And we’re spending a lot of time right now trying not to offend this Trump administration.”
‘Might is right’ precedent
University of Otago Professor Robert Patman said the US strike on Iran would likely “make things worse” and set a precedent for “might is right.”
He said he had “no brief” for the repressive Iranian regime, but under international law it had been subject of “two illegal attacks in the last 10 days”, from Israel and now from the US.
Patman said New Zealand had been guarded in its comments about the attacks on Iran, and believed the country should speak out.
“We have championed non nuclear security since the mid 80s. We were a key player, a leader, of the treaty to abolish nuclear weapons, and that now has 94 signatories.”
He said New Zealand does have a voice and an expectation to contribute to an international debate that’s beginning to unfold.
“We seem to be at a fork in the road moment internationally, we can seek to reinstate the idea that international relations should be based on rules, principles and procedures, or we can simply passively accept the erosion of that architecture, which is to the detriment of the majority of countries in the world.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
Several members of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy team have said that the United States isn’t pursuing regime change in Iran after the U.S.’s military strikes against the country this past weekend. But Trump seemed to contradict those claims in a Truth Social post on Sunday, suggesting that the U.S. may seek to overthrow the Iranian government in the future.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
As U.S. President Donald Trump took to social media on Sunday night to express that regime is on the table for Iran’s government, the call from Democratic lawmakers and outside progressive voices for his impeachment continued to grow following the weekend bombing of Iranian nuclear sites. “It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,'” Trump posted on Sunday night on Truth…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), allowed the IAEA to be used by the United States and Israel—an undeclared nuclear weapons state in long-term violation of IAEA rules—to manufacture a pretext for war on Iran, despite his agency’s own conclusion that Iran had no nuclear weapons program.
On June 12, based on a damning report by Grossi, a slim majority of the IAEA Board of Governors voted to find Iran in non-compliance with its obligations as an IAEA member. Of the 35 countries represented on the Board, only 19 voted for the resolution, while 3 voted against it, 11 abstained and 2 did not vote.
The United States contacted eight board member governments on June 10 to persuade them to either vote for the resolution or not to vote. Israeli officials said they saw the U.S. arm-twisting for the IAEA resolution as a significant signal of U.S. support for Israel’s war plans, revealing how much Israel valued the IAEA resolution as diplomatic cover for the war.
The IAEA board meeting was timed for the final day of President Trump’s 60-day ultimatum to Iran to negotiate a new nuclear agreement. Even as the IAEA board voted, Israel was loading weapons, fuel and drop-tanks on its warplanes for the long flight to Iran and briefing its aircrews on their targets. The first Israeli air strikes hit Iran at 3 a.m. that night.
On June 20, Iran filed a formal complaint against Director General Grossi with the UN Secretary General and the UN Security Council for undermining his agency’s impartiality, both by his failure to mention the illegality of Israel’s threats and uses of force against Iran in his public statements and by his singular focus on Iran’s alleged violations.
The source of the IAEA investigation that led to this resolution was a 2018 Israeli intelligence report that its agents had identified three previously undisclosed sites in Iran where Iran had conducted uranium enrichment prior to 2003. In 2019, Grossi opened an investigation, and the IAEA eventually gained access to the sites and detected traces of enriched uranium.
Despite the fateful consequences of his actions, Grossi has never explained publicly how the IAEA can be sure that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency or its Iranian collaborators, such as the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (or MEK), did not put the enriched uranium in those sites themselves, as Iranian officials have suggested.
While the IAEA resolution that triggered this war dealt only with Iran’s enrichment activities prior to 2003, U.S. and Israeli politicians quickly pivoted to unsubstantiated claims that Iran was on the verge of making a nuclear weapon. U.S. intelligence agencies had previously reported that such a complex process would take up to three years, even before Israel and the United States began bombing and degrading Iran’s existing civilian nuclear facilities.
The IAEA’s previous investigations into unreported nuclear activities in Iran were officially completed in December 2015, when IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano published its “Final Assessment on Past and Present Outstanding Issues regarding Iran’s Nuclear Program.”
The IAEA assessed that, while some of Iran’s past activities might have been relevant to nuclear weapons, they “did not advance beyond feasibility and scientific studies, and the acquisition of certain relevant technical competences and capabilities.” The IAEA “found no credible indications of the diversion of nuclear material in connection with the possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program.”
When Yukiya Amano died before the end of his term in 2019, Argentinian diplomat Rafael Grossi was appointed IAEA Director General. Grossi had served as Deputy Director General under Amano and, before that, as Chief of Staff under Director General Mohamed ElBaradei.
The Israelis have a long record of fabricating false evidence about Iran’s nuclear activities, like the notorious “laptop documents” given to the CIA by the MEK in 2004 and believed to have been created by the Mossad. Douglas Frantz, who wrote a report on Iran’s nuclear program for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2009, revealed that the Mossad created a special unit in 2003 to provide secret briefings on Iran’s nuclear program, using “documents from inside Iran and elsewhere.”
And yet Grossi collaborated with Israel to pursue its latest allegations. After several years of meetings in Israel and negotiations and inspections in Iran, he wrote his report to the IAEA Board of Governors and scheduled a board meeting to coincide with the planned start date for Israel’s war.
Israel made its final war preparations in full view of the satellites and intelligence agencies of the western countries that drafted and voted for the resolution. It is no wonder that 13 countries abstained or did not vote, but it is tragic that more neutral countries could not find the wisdom and courage to vote against this insidious resolution.
The official purpose of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, is “to promote the safe, secure and peaceful use of nuclear technologies.” Since 1965, all of its 180 member countries have been subject to IAEA safeguards to ensure that their nuclear programs are “not used in such a way as to further any military purpose.”
The IAEA’s work is obviously compromised in dealing with countries that already have nuclear weapons. North Korea withdrew from the IAEA in 1994, and from all safeguards in 2009. The United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China have IAEA safeguard agreements that are based only on “voluntary offers” for “selected” non-military sites. India has a 2009 safeguard agreement that requires it to keep its military and civilian nuclear programs separate, and Pakistan has 10 separate safeguard agreements, but only for civilian nuclear projects, the latest being from 2017 to cover two Chinese-built power stations.
Israel, however, has only a limited 1975 safeguards agreement for a 1955 civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States. An addendum in 1977 extended the IAEA safeguards agreement indefinitely, even though the cooperation agreement with the U.S. that it covered expired four days later. So, by a parody of compliance that the United States and the IAEA have played along with for half a century, Israel has escaped the scrutiny of IAEA safeguards just as effectively as North Korea.
Israel began working on a nuclear weapon in the 1950s, with substantial help from Western countries, including France, Britain and Argentina, and made its first weapons in 1966 or 1967. By 2015, when Iran signed the JCPOA nuclear agreement, former Secretary of State Colin Powell wrote in a leaked email that a nuclear weapon would be useless to Iran because “Israel has 200, all targeted on Tehran.” Powell quoted former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asking, “What would we do with a nuclear weapon? Polish it?”
In 2003, while Powell tried but failed to make a case for war on Iraq to the UN Security Council, President Bush smeared Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an “axis of evil,” based on their alleged pursuit of “weapons of mass destruction.” The Egyptian IAEA Director, Mohamed ElBaradei, repeatedly assured the Security Council that the IAEA could find no evidence that Iraq was developing a nuclear weapon.
When the CIA produced a document that showed Iraq importing yellowcake uranium from Niger, just as Israel had secretly imported it from Argentina in the 1960s, the IAEA only took a few hours to recognize the document as a forgery, which ElBaradei immediately reported to the Security Council.
Bush kept repeating the lie about yellowcake from Niger, and other flagrant lies about Iraq, and the United States invaded and destroyed Iraq based on his lies, a war crime of historic proportions. Most of the world knew that ElBaradei and the IAEA were right all along, and, in 2005, they were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for exposing Bush’s lies, speaking truth to power and strengthening nuclear non-proliferation.
In 2007, a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) by all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies agreed with the IAEA’s finding that Iran, like Iraq, had no nuclear weapons program. As Bush wrote in his memoirs, “…after the NIE, how could I possibly explain using the military to destroy the nuclear facilities of a country the intelligence community said had no active nuclear weapons program?” Even Bush couldn’t believe he would get away with recycling the same lies to destroy Iran as well as Iraq, and Trump is playing with fire by doing so now.
ElBaradei wrote in his own memoir, The Age of Deception: Nuclear Diplomacy in Treacherous Times, that if Iran did do some preliminary research on nuclear weapons, it probably began during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, after the US and its allies helped Iraq to manufacture chemical weapons that killed up to 100,000 Iranians.
The neocons who dominate U.S. post-Cold War foreign policy viewed the Nobel Prize winner ElBaradei as an obstacle to their regime change ambitions around the world, and conducted a covert campaign to find a more compliant new IAEA Director General when his term expired in 2009.
After Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano was appointed as the new Director General, U.S. diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks revealed details of his extensive vetting by U.S. diplomats, who reported back to Washington that Amano “was solidly in the U.S. court on every key strategic decision, from high-level personnel appointments to the handling of Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program.”
After becoming IAEA Director General in 2019, Rafael Grossi not only continued the IAEA’s subservience to U.S. and Western interests and its practice of turning a blind eye to Israel’s nuclear weapons, but also ensured that the IAEA played a critical role in Israel’s march to war on Iran.
Even as he publicly acknowledged that Iran had no nuclear weapons program and that diplomacy was the only way to resolve the West’s concerns about Iran, Grossi helped Israel to set the stage for war by reopening the IAEA’s investigation into Iran’s past activities. Then, on the very day that Israeli warplanes were being loaded with weapons to bomb Iran, he made sure that the IAEA Board of Governors passed a resolution to give Israel and the U.S. the pretext for war that they wanted.
In his last year as IAEA Director, Mohamed ElBaradei faced a similar dilemma to the one that Grossi has faced since 2019. In 2008, U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies gave the IAEA copies of documents that appeared to show Iran conducting four distinct types of nuclear weapons research.
Whereas, in 2003, Bush’s yellowcake document from Niger was clearly a forgery, the IAEA could not establish whether the Israeli documents were authentic or not. So ElBaradei refused to act on them or to make them public, despite considerable political pressure, because, as he wrote in The Age of Deception, he knew the U.S. and Israel “wanted to create the impression that Iran presented an imminent threat, perhaps preparing the grounds for the use of force.” ElBaradei retired in 2009, and those allegations were among the “outstanding issues” that he left to be resolved by Yukiya Amano in 2015.
If Rafael Grossi had exercised the same caution, impartiality and wisdom as Mohamed ElBaradei did in 2009, it is very possible that the United States and Israel would not be at war with Iran today.
Mohamed ElBaradei wrote in a tweet on June 17, 2025, “To rely on force and not negotiations is a sure way to destroy the NPT and the nuclear non-proliferation regime (imperfect as it is), and sends a clear message to many countries that their “ultimate security” is to develop nuclear weapons!!!”
Despite Grossi’s role in U.S.-Israeli war plans as IAEA Director General, or maybe because of it, he has been touted as a Western-backed candidate to succeed Antonio Guterres as UN Secretary General in 2026. That would be a disaster for the world. Fortunately, there are many more qualified candidates to lead the world out of the crisis that Rafael Grossi has helped the U.S. and Israel to plunge it into.
Rafael Grossi should resign as IAEA Director before he further undermines nuclear non-proliferation and drags the world any closer to nuclear war. And he should also withdraw his name from consideration as a candidate for UN Secretary General.
The post How the US and Israel Used Rafael Grossi to Hijack the IAEA and Start a War on Iran first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
It’s quite remarkable really.
The criminal Israeli government, its propagandists, and its brainwashed citizens, have suddenly remembered what a fucking hospital looks like!
Remember folks. It’s entirely reasonable to intentionally and systematically obliterate dozens of Palestinian hospitals if they’re full of Palestinian babies, Palestinian cancer sufferers, Palestinian dialysis patients, and Palestinian amputees, because that’s ‘self-defence’.
These whingeing Israeli hypocrites are even bleating about war crimes. Can you believe the nerve of the genocidal junkies?
Israel wants you to weep for its dead. It wants you to denounce Iran for using Tel Aviv for target practice. It wants you to believe it didn’t start this.
In the simplest of terms, the bully got a black eye, and the bully wants your pity.
I don’t want anyone to die – Israelis, Iranians, or Palestinians – and I don’t want anyone to lose their home under the weight of a ballistic missile. Be in no doubt of that. The only winners in war are the manufacturers of weapons.
But if you want me to feel overwhelming sympathy for a state that is bang-to-rights on the charge of genocide and people that callously mocked Palestinian children while they were slain in their thousands by a government that is hell bent on clearing the way for Greater Israel, you will be waiting a long time.
Never forget, most Israeli people supported and endorsed the genocide of Gaza, even more so when it became apparent that the rest of the family could move over from the United States.
Never forget, some Israeli people would take to the hilltops with a glass of wine to enjoy the mass murder of fellow human beings. This is a societal illness. Who in their right mind would take pleasure from watching men, women, and children being vaporised in front of their eyes?
Never forget, it was Israeli people who closed down numerous checkpoints to stop vital humanitarian aid reaching the people of Gaza. Food, clean water, hygiene products, and medical supplies — all heading to the besieged enclave — stopped by hateful, radicalised Israelis for no other reason than the spiteful extremism that they have been spoon-fed since birth.
We do not forget, Israel. The receipts are real. Your army kill, maim, and rape the innocent. Children are assassinated, tortured, and evaporated. Starving humans, waiting for some flour, remorselessly gunned down by trigger-happy Israelis whose only previous military experience was playing Call of Duty on their PlayStation back home, in New York.
You want *us* to mourn for a blown up Mossad building, but you have displaced two fucking million people and slaughtered more than 50,000 humans and left children eating sand to survive.
So you, Israel, can get fucked.
The only thing we can thank Zionism for is the spectacular downfall of the colonial superpower that is ‘the West’.
I hear so much talk of ‘regime change’, but has anyone ever considered regime change in Israel?
Netanyahu has been warning of Iran’s nuclear ambitions since 1995 while Israel builds up its own stockpile and refuses to let anyone inspect it.
This is entirely consistent with the way Israel conducts itself. It considers itself above international law and only believes international law should apply when it is its own pariah state that is under attack.
Tough shit. That’s not how it works.
The often-expressed sentiment ‘fuck Israel’ no longer has the meaning that it once did because the state of Israel has fucked itself.
My sorrow is spared for the countless victims of Israel’s relentless aggression. You may argue that Israeli people are victims of their own government’s criminality and violence, but they are not forced into supporting some of the most heinous crimes against humanity in our lifetimes, are they? (Kudos, of course, to the small minority that has been resisting.)
The ultra-aggressive online Zionists confuse disdain for Israel with support for Iran. Don’t be silenced by their lies, and do not stand for their false antisemitism smears.
The entire world has witnessed Israel parading its immorality across the Middle East with zero accountability for way too long.
We had the same nonsense argument in Britain. How many times were you labelled a ‘Tory enabler’ for criticising Keir Starmer’s then-opposition? I couldn’t scroll through my mentions without being called ‘Boris Johnson’s biggest supporter’, or something equally unimaginative.
Again, if you voice your disapproval of the Zelensky regime in Ukraine, you must be a Kremlin asset. The comedy guy with just the one T-shirt might float your boat, but I’m not a fan of anyone that teams up with neo-Nazis.
If you are wondering when Britain will get involved in Israel’s reign of terror and death, don’t. We have been entirely complicit in Israel’s extreme violence since 1948, and that isn’t going to come to an end any time soon.
This post was originally published on Canary.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
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This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
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This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
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This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
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“Netanyahu’s purpose was to drag Trump in,” Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator, says of the U.S. attack on Iran. Over the weekend, the U.S. directly joined the war between Israel and Iran when it bombed three nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, though it’s unclear how far the strikes have set back the Iranian nuclear program. Israel and the United States accuse Iran of developing nuclear weapons, while Iran says its program is for civilian use. United Nations inspectors and U.S. intelligence assessments have said Iran is not building weapons. “The danger now is that, having brought the U.S. into this, Israel will seek to go further up the escalatory ladder,” says Levy. “It wants the chaos.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
After President Trump’s attack on Iran over the weekend, civil society leaders are organizing to demand an end to the violence. We speak with Iranian American scholar Kaveh Ehsani, associate professor of international studies at DePaul University in Chicago, who helped organize a petition against the war signed by more than 1,000 academics in the United States, Europe and Iran. “What this is doing is immiserating further the lives of ordinary people,” says Ehsani.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
On Saturday 21 June, US president Donald Trump launched massive and illegal missile attacks on the sovereign nation of Iran, following on from an unprovoked Israeli assault on the country a week before. He did so in total violation of international law, and without the consent of the US congress or the support of the US people. It was an unjustifiable act of aggression which threatens to escalate into a full-scale war which will kill many, further destabilise the Middle East, and disturb the cooperation of nations around the globe for decades to come.
So of course Keir Starmer immediately came out in support of the escalation:
Keir Starmer endorses an attack which his own Attorney General has advised may be illegal pic.twitter.com/GENDqpFRTQ
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) June 22, 2025
The conflict with Iran began when Israel attacked it. The apartheid state justified its assault with the same excuse that the US and Britain used to illegally invade Iraq in 2003, claiming that Iran was working on ‘weapons of mass destruction’. Citizens around the world weren’t falling for this, as we reported last week, and yet Labour immediately took sides with Israel – the aggressor.
For those following Israel’s genocide in Gaza, this turn of events was unsurprising. Both the US and the UK have continued to support and arm Israel despite it facing accusations of war crimes in the International Criminal Court (ICC). Former prime minister David Cameron even tried to threaten the ICC not to issue arrest warrants for those responsible.
What’s one more breach of international law on top of all that?
The fact that Starmer’s move was unsurprising, however, does not mean it wasn’t disgusting. And many people made their disgust clear:
I have never despised a prime minister more. You’ve drenched every British citizen in blood. The vast majority reject your support for Israel, its genocide, and its constant violations of international law. Shame on you.
— Philip Proudfoot (@PhilipProudfoot) June 22, 2025
Stop pretending this is about international security. It's about Western interests and the opposite of international security. It represents a shattering of international law, and submitting to the will of a genocidal state who is destabilising the region. You're a disgrace
— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) June 22, 2025
Keir Starmer is a cipher, the most spineless, talentless British leader of all time. A human rights lawyer with utter contempt for human rights for people who don't look like him. A character that doesn't work in a movie: a baddie with zero charisma. pic.twitter.com/dAmU63BNPH
— Tehran Tadhg (@TadhgHickey) June 22, 2025
Personally I can’t wait to watch my prime minister Sir Keir Rodney Starmer immediately commit to the course of action that will kill the most people in the worst way over the longest period of time at the largest cost for the least valid reason
— Eyup Lovely (@eyuplovely) June 22, 2025
If you’re a terror state committing a genocide, you’re a friend. If you oppose it, you’re a terrorist.
Welcome to Keir Starmer’s Britain. https://t.co/4Mmy3bAqFg
— Hamza Yusuf (@Hamza_a96) June 20, 2025
Others are highlighting that Starmer either had no idea what Trump had planned or was openly lying to the media:
How thick is Starmer. pic.twitter.com/eVFm3vuFvF
— JmRoyle #LFC #YNWA #BLM #RejoinEU (@MyArrse) June 22, 2025
STARMERS LAW – The probability of an opposite outcome is directly proportional to the certainty with which Starmer delivers the original statement.
Example:
“I don't believe President Trump will attack Iran"Outcome – Trump attacks Iran.
— Bernie (@Artemisfornow) June 22, 2025
Keir Starmer predictably announces his support for the US bombing of Iran, which is surely illegal under international law. https://t.co/c5iWanq7Wf
— Declassified UK (@declassifiedUK) June 22, 2025
The big difference between this moment and 2003 is that increasingly few people support the Western establishment’s crusades in the Middle East. As such, even commentators like the Daily Mail‘s Dan Hodges are calling Starmer out:
I cannot recall a major foreign policy crisis where the British Prime Minister has debased and humiliated themself in such a comprehensive way. https://t.co/xqUYqa1gzE
— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) June 22, 2025
When is Keir Starmer going to learn he is Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, not a glorified global marriage guidance councillor > Mail on Sunday > https://t.co/ttaqoDUAPc
— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) June 22, 2025
But then, Hodges may have actually been hoping for even stronger support for Trump, by the looks of it:
One thing being missed about Starmer's "Trump isn't going to get involved in Iran" blunder. It's not just it was wrong. It was said just at the time the US was trying to convince Iran they were serious about intervention, in a final effort to bring them to the negotiating table.
— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) June 22, 2025
The picture this paints is that the US was sincerely trying to bring Iran to the table (despite backing Israel’s offensive) and that Starmer fucked it all up. In reality, Iran has been open to and engaging in negotiations for years, and was reportedly ready to pledge never to develop nuclear weapons before Israel came in and blew up the negotiating table. There was also reporting last week that Trump planned to attack Iran at the weekend (i.e. when the markets were closed).
Another right-winger criticising Starmer was founder of Conservative Home Tim Montgomerie:
Starmer's argument on Tuesday that Trump wouldn't join Israel in bombing Iran was questionable at the time. This morning Starmer's misjudged words reinforce how irrelevant Britain and Europe are in setting Middle Eastern policy. pic.twitter.com/88B5wgXoha
— Tim Montgomerie
(@montie) June 22, 2025
We’re sure that Montgomerie is upset we’re apparently being sidelined, but either way, it highlights how despicable Starmer is. Even when the US doesn’t care about us at all, our prime minister is bending over backwards to let it step on us.
Shameful. Depraved. Expected.
The following post truly highlights what an empty vessel Keir Starmer is:
Lest not forget that in 2004, @Keir_Starmer defended a man who broke into an RAF base and tried to set fire to British aircraft. Starmer argued his actions were legal because they were to stop an 'illegal war.' pic.twitter.com/LJaPyQIbRR
— TLTM (@TLTM32) June 21, 2025
The Telegraph reported on the case Starmer defended in 2004:
A group of anti-war protesters had broken into RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire to sabotage US bombers before they flew to Iraq.
Sir Keir argued that while the actions were against the law, they were justified because they were trying to stop the planes from committing war crimes.
Josh Richards, who was represented by Sir Keir, was cleared after a jury failed to reach a verdict.
The Telegraph covered this with a negative slant, of course, because the right care more about property damage than illegal wars which kill hundreds of thousands of people.
Comparing the above case to this moment, Starmer’s government is moving to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist group because it grafittied a fighter jet. As Maryam Jameela reported on 20 June:
Palestine Action activists have broken into RAF Brize Norton and damaged two military aircrafts. The military base is the largest hub in the UK for air transport. In a video posted to its social media, actionists can be seen squirting paint into the engines of military aircraft.
BREAKING: Palestine Action break into RAF Brize Norton and damage two military aircrafts.
Flights depart daily from the base to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.
From Cyprus, British planes collect intelligence, refuel fighter jets and transport weapons to commit genocide in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/zzmFqGKW8N
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) June 20, 2025
Regarding Labour’s plan to proscribe Palestine Action, the BBC wrote:
The home secretary will move to proscribe the Palestine Action group in the coming weeks, effectively branding them as a terrorist organisation, the BBC understands.
Yvette Cooper is preparing a written statement to put before Parliament on Monday.
The decision comes as a security review begins at military bases across the UK, after pro-Palestinian activists broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and sprayed two military planes with red paint.
Palestine Action responded:
When our government fails to uphold their moral and legal obligations, it is the responsibility of ordinary citizens to take direct action.
We agree with Palestine Action. Starmer’s government is operating outside all moral and legal expectations, and it would be wrong to just stand by and watch.
Starmer’s refusal to call out the US or its Israeli partner for their almost-certainly illegal actions is deeply troubling. His cowardice suggests that, if it comes down to it, he will try to sign us up to a war that very few people in this country want.
As Starmer is already one of the most unpopular politicians this country has ever suffered through, we imagine the resulting response will make the Iraq protests look like a picnic.
Featured image via Gage Skidmore (Flickr) / UK Home Office (Wikimedia) – all images cropped
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
Asia Pacific Report
New Zealand’s opposition Green Party has called on the government to condemn the United States for its illegal bombing of Iran and inflaming tensions across the Middle East.
“The actions of the United States pose a fundamental threat to world peace,” said Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson in a statement.
“The rest of the world — including New Zealand– must take a stand and make it clear that this dangerous escalation is unacceptable.
“We are calling on the New Zealand government to condemn the United States for its attack on Iran. This attack is a blatant breach of international law and yet another unjustified assault on the Middle East from the US.”
Davidson said the country had seen this with the US war on Iraq in 2003, and it was happening again with Sunday’s attack on Iran.
“We are at risk of a violent history repeating itself,” she said.
“[Prime Minister] Christopher Luxon needs to condemn this escalation from the US and rule out any participation in this conflict, or any of the elements of the AUKUS pact.
Independent foreign policy
“New Zealand must maintain its independent foreign policy position and keep its distance from countries that are actively fanning the flames of war.”
Davidson said New Zealand had a long and proud history of standing up for human rights on the world stage.
“When we stand strong and with other countries in calling for peace, we can make a difference. We cannot afford to be a bystander to the atrocities unfolding in front of our eyes.”
It was time for the New Zealand government to step up.
“It has failed to sanction Israel for its illegal and violent occupation of Palestine, and we risk burning all international credibility by failing to speak out against what the United States has just done.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Luxon said New Zealand wanted to see a peaceful stable and secure Middle East, but more military action was not the answer, reports RNZ News.
The UN Security Council met in emergency session today to discuss the US attack on the three key nuclear facilities.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the US bombing marked a “perilous turn” in a region already reeling.
Iran called on the 15-member body to condemn what it called a “blatant and unlawful act of aggression”.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
Destroying peace. Illustration: Liu Rui/GT
On Saturday local time, the US announced that it had launched airstrikes on three nuclear facilities in Iran. This marks the first time the US has officially intervened militarily in this round of the Iran-Israel conflict, drawing widespread shock from the international community. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on social media that the move was “a dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge – and a direct threat to international peace and security.” China’s Foreign Ministry also strongly condemned the US attacks on Iran. US action, which seriously violates the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and international law, not only heightens tensions in the Middle East but also risks triggering a wider crisis.
Attacking nuclear facilities is extremely dangerous. Due to their unique nature, damage to such sites could lead to severe nuclear leaks, potentially resulting in humanitarian disasters and posing grave risks to regional safety. The tragic past lessons of the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents already showed that the consequences of nuclear leaks don’t pose a threat to a single country – they impact neighboring nations and the global security environment.
By using “bunker-buster” bombs to “accomplish what Israel could not,” the US has deliberately escalated the level of weaponry used, pouring fuel on the flames of war and pushing the Iran-Israel conflict closer toward an uncontrollable state.
What the US bombs have impacted is the foundation of the international security order. By attacking nuclear facilities under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Washington has set a dangerous precedent. This action, in essence, bypasses both the UN Security Council and the IAEA framework, attempting to unilaterally “resolve” the Iranian nuclear issue through force. This is a serious violation of the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and international law, as well as a rejection of the principled position of the international community, including China and the European Union, which has dealt with the Iranian nuclear issue through multilateral negotiations for many years. Washington’s boast of close cooperation with Israel “as a team” confirms its nature of dragging its ally against international morality and multilateralism.
For Iran, the strike is a blatant provocation. After responding that it “reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interests and people,” Tehran on Sunday launched the powerful Kheibar Shekan missile targeting Israel for the first time. According to media reports, Ismail Kowsari, a member of the National Security Commission of the Parliament in Iran, said the country’s parliament voted to approve the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Supreme National Security Council is expected to weigh in and make a final decision on the matter. Iran is located in the choke point of the Strait of Hormuz, which around one-fifth of the world’s total oil and gas consumption transits through. Once this channel is blocked by the war, international oil prices are bound to fluctuate dramatically, while global shipping security and economic stability will face serious challenges.
The US military’s “direct involvement” has further complicated and destabilized the Middle East situation, drawing more countries and innocent civilians into the conflict and forcing them to face a loss. Even the Associated Press called the airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities a “perilous decision,” while the New York Times warned that US military action against Iran would “bring risks at every turn.” What is also receiving a lot of attention is that due to US strike on Iran, Yemen’s Houthis announced it would resume attacks on US ships in the Red Sea. The region is already entangled in a complex web of sectarian divisions, proxy wars and external interventions. The facts show that US involvement is causing the Iran-Israel conflict to spill over. Within just one day, international investors rushed to sell off risk assets, and discussions of a “sixth Middle East war” surged across media platforms, reflecting the global community’s growing anxiety over the region’s spiraling instability.
China has consistently opposed the threat and abuse of using force. It advocates resolving crises through political and diplomatic means. In a recent phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward a “four-point proposal” regarding the Middle East situation: promoting a cease-fire and ending the hostilities is an urgent priority; ensuring the safety of civilians is of paramount importance; opening dialogue and negotiation is the fundamental way forward; and efforts by the international community to promote peace are indispensable. This proposal reflects China’s long-standing and farsighted security vision. History in the Middle East has repeatedly shown that external military intervention never brings peace – it only deepens regional hatred and trauma. The false logic behind US coercion by force runs counter to peace. Hopefully, the parties involved, especially Israel, will implement an immediate cease-fire, ensure the safety of civilians and open dialogue and negotiation to restore peace and stability in the region.
The post US Bombs Have Impacted Foundation of Global Security Order first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
De-escalation has become one of those coarse words in severe need of banishment, best kept in an index used by unredeemable hypocrites. It is used by the living dead in human resources, management worthies and war criminals. It’s almost always used to target the person or entity that exerts retribution or seeks to avenge (dramatic) or merely overcome (mildly) a state of affairs imposed upon them.
You might be bullied in the workplace for being fastidious and conscientious, showing up your daft colleagues, or reputationally attacked by a member of the establishment keen to conceal his corrupt practices. When contemplating retaliation, the self-appointed middle ground types will call upon you to “de-escalate” the situation, insisting that you appeal to the better side of your bruised nature. After all, you know it was your fault.
The joining of the United States in the war against Iran made Washington a co-conspirator to soiling international law and profaning its salient provisions. The US was in no immediate danger, nor was there any imminent threat, existential or otherwise, to its interests vis-à-vis Tehran. Yet President Donald Trump, having had the poison of persuasion poured into his ear by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had succumbed. His will annexed to that of the Israeli premier, Trump ordered the US Air Force on June 22 to conduct bombing raids on three Iranian nuclear facilities: Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow. They were recipients of that hefty example of phallocratic lethality known as the bunker buster, the GBU-57A Massive Ordnance Penetrator. With his usual unwavering confidence, Trump declared in an address to the nation that all the country’s “nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”
In violating international law and desecrating that important canon injuncting states from committing crimes against peace, Israel and the United States are not the ones being told to restrain their violence and acknowledge breaching the United Nations Charter, risking yet another conflagration in the Middle East. It is their targeted state, the Republic of Iran, whose officials must “de-escalate” and play nice before the diplomatic table, abandoning a nuclear program, civil or military. “Iran, the bully of the Middle East,” Trump directs, “must now make peace.”
With suddenness, the advocates and publicists for international law vanished across the broadly described West. In Europe, Canada, the US and Australia, the mores and customs observed by states could be conveniently forgotten and retired. In its place reigned the logic of brute force and unquestioned violence. Provided such violence is exercised by that rogue combine of Amerisrael, deference and dispensation will be afforded. The same could never be said for such countries as China and Russia, abominated for not accepting the “rules-based order” imposed by Western weaponry and force.
The lamentable, plaintiff responses from Brussels to Canberra tell a sorry tale: pre-emptive war waged against a country’s nuclear and oil facilities is just the sort of thing that one is allowed to do, since the rotter in question is a theocratic state of haughty disposition and regional ambition. You can get away with murdering scientists in their sleep, along with their families, liquidating the upper echelons of their military leadership and killing journalists along the way.
The approved formula behind these responses is as follows. From the outset, mention that Iran must never acquire a nuclear weapon. If possible, underline any relevant qualities that render it ineligible to any other state that has nuclear weapons. Instruct Tehran that diplomacy is imperative, and retaliation terrible. Behave and exercise restraint.
Here is Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of the UK, speaking from his Chequers country retreat: it was “clear Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon”, which was “why our focus has been on de-escalating, getting people back around to negotiate what is a very real threat in relation to the nuclear program.” If one was left in any doubt who the guilty party was, UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds helped dispel it, calling Iran “a threat to this country, not in an abstract way, not in a speculative way”.
The German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, after convening his security cabinet on the morning of June 22, conveyed his views through German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius: “Friedrich Merz reiterated his call for Iran to immediately begin negotiations with the US and Israel and to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict.”
French President Emmanuel Macron similarly got on the de-escalation bandwagon with gusto, giving a teacherly warning to Iran to “exercise the greatest restraint” and dedicate itself to renouncing nuclear weapons. It was the only credible path to peace and security for all. The president conveniently skipped past the huge elephant in the room: Israel’s illicit possession of nuclear weapons, undeclared, unmonitored and extra-legal, as a factor that severely compromises the issue of stability in the Middle East.
From the European Union, the attackers and the attacked were given equal billing. “I urge all sides to step back, return to the negotiating table and prevent further escalation,” urged Kaja Kallas, Vice-President of the European Commission. The obligatory “Iran must never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, as it would be a threat to international security” followed. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also thought it perfectly sensible to matronly instruct the Iranians on the next step: “Now is the moment for Iran to engage in a credible diplomatic solution. The negotiating table is the only way to end this crisis.”
All these comments are deliciously rich given that Israel has never entertained negotiations on any level with Iran, dismissive of its nuclear energy needs, while the first Trump administration sabotaged the diplomatically brokered Joint Plan of Comprehensive Action that successfully diverted Tehran away from a military nuclear program in favour of a lifting of sanctions. Talk from Amerisrael and their allies would seem to be heavily discounted, if not counterfeit. The glaring, coruscating message to Iran: retaliation bad; de-escalation good.
The post Directive to Iran: Retaliation Bad; De-Escalation Good first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
This content originally appeared on The Grayzone and was authored by The Grayzone.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on The Grayzone and was authored by The Grayzone.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by The Real News Network.
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A plan was developed for the United States to use diplomacy to entice Iran into negotiations that then fail, so Iran can be attacked while the U.S. is pushing a false narrative saying the Iranians “brought it on themselves.”
The plan also urged the U.S. to encourage or assist the Israelis, as a direct U.S. proxy, to conduct the strikes on Iran so as to deflect criticism and retaliation onto Israel, as Declassified Australia reports.
The audacious plan for a “plausibly deniable” war is detailed in an analysis flippantly titled “Leave It To Bibi: Allowing or Encouraging an Israeli Military Strike,” published in a report named Which Path To Persia: Options for a New American Strategy Towards Iran by the Brookings Institution, a longstanding Washington, D.C., think tank.
The post The United States’ Plan To Bomb Iran appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
As of this writing, the Trump White House has launched an attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran – a country that already is the victim of an unprovoked aggression by Israel. B-52 bombers have hit three major nuclear facilities; batteries of Tomahawk missiles also have been fired. The potential consequences are catastrophic. This action is in violation of the explicit Constitutional provision that Congress alone has the power to declare war. That fundamental fact gets barely mentioned in whatever public discourse has taken place.
The termination point of this reckless path to war will find us despised in the world – whatever the immediate military outcome.
The post Over The Brink appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
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Above photo: Unusual activity at Fordow before US strikes. Satellite images from June 19 to 20 show several cargo trucks positioned along the access road to the facility’s tunnel entrance. Most were later moved about 1 kilometer northwest of the site. Al Jazeera. This report seems genuine: Exclusive: Iran given advance notice as US insisted […]
The post Is The United States’ Story Of Its Attack On Iran Accurate? appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
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An official in the administration of President Donald Trump has told The Grayzone that CIA Director John Ratcliffe and US CENTCOM Commander Gen. Michael Kurilla have become vehicles for Israel’s Mossad and military as they seek to manipulate the US into attacking Iran. The Trump official referred to Ratcliffe as “Mossad’s stenographer.”
According to the official, Ratcliffe and Kurilla have pressured Trump to join Israel’s war more directly by regurgitating overblown briefings they received from the Israeli military and Mossad director David Barnea – but without informing the president that the intelligence was derived from a foreign third party.
The post Trump Official: CIA’s Ratcliffe Acts As ‘Mossad Stenographer’ On Iran appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
By Giles Dexter, RNZ News political reporter
The Defence Force is sending a plane to the Middle East to assist any New Zealanders stranded in Iran or Israel.
The C-130J Hercules, along with government personnel, will leave Auckland on Monday.
Airspace is still closed in the region, but Defence Minister Judith Collins said the deployment was part of New Zealand’s contingency plans.
“Airspace in Israel and Iran remains heavily restricted, which means getting people out by aircraft is not yet possible, but by positioning an aircraft, and defence and foreign affairs personnel in the region, we may be able to do more when airspace reopens,” she said.
The government was also in discussions with commercial airlines to see what they could do to assist, although it was uncertain when airspace would reopen.
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said New Zealanders should do everything they could to leave now, if they could find a safe route.
“We know it will not be safe for everyone to leave Iran or Israel, and many people may not have access to transport or fuel supplies,” he said.
‘Stay in touch’
“If you are in this situation, you should shelter in place, follow appropriate advice from local authorities and stay in touch with family and friends where possible.”
Peters reiterated New Zealand’s call for diplomacy and dialogue.
“Ongoing military action in the Middle East is extremely worrying and it is critical further escalation is avoided,” he said. “New Zealand strongly supports efforts towards diplomacy.
“We urge all parties to return to talks. Diplomacy will deliver a more enduring resolution than further military action.”
It will take a few days for the Hercules to reach the region.
New Zealanders in Iran and Israel needing urgent consular assistance should call the Ministry’s Emergency Consular Call Centre on +64 99 20 20 20.
New Zealand hoped the aircraft and personnel would not be needed, and diplomatic efforts would prevail, Collins re-iterated.
The ministers would not say where exactly the plane and personnel would be based, for security reasons.
Registered number in Iran jumps
Peters told reporters the number of New Zealanders registered in Iran had jumped since the escalation of the crisis.
“We thought, at a certain time, we had them all counted out at 46,” he said. “It’s far more closer to 80 now, because they’re coming out of the woodwork, despite the fact that, for months, we said, ‘Look, this is a danger zone’, and for a number of days we’ve said, ‘Get out if you possibly can’.”
There were 101 New Zealanders registered in Israel. Again, Peters said the figure had risen recently.
He indicated people from other nations could be assisted, similar to when the NZDF assisted in repatriations from New Caledonia last year.
Labour defence spokesperson Peeni Henare supported the move.
“I acknowledge the news that the New Zealand Defence Force will soon begin a repatriation mission to the Middle East, and thank the crew and officials on this mission for their ongoing work to bring New Zealanders home safely,” he said.
While he agreed with the government that the attacks were a dangerous escalation of the conflict and supported the government’s calls for dialogue, he said the US bombing of Iran was a breach of international law and the government should be saying it.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
By Mark Rabago, RNZ Pacific Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas correspondent
Leaders in the US-affliliated Pacific Islands have reacted to the US strikes on Iran.
US president Donald Trump said Iran must now make peace or “we will go after” other targets in Iran, after US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the US had begun a “dangerous war against Iran”, according to a statement shared by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Governor Arnold Palacios of the Northern Marianas said he WAs “monitoring the situation in our region with our US military partners”.
“The Northern Marianas remains alert and we remain positively hopeful and confident that peace and diplomacy reign for the benefit of our fellow brethren here at home and around the world.”
Delegate Kimberlyn King-Hinds said the Marianas had long understood “the delicate balance between strategic presence and peace”.
“As tensions rise in the Middle East, I’m hopeful that diplomacy remains the guiding force,” she said.
“My prayers are with the service members and their families throughout the region, most especially those from our islands who quietly serve in defense of global stability.”
No credible threats
Guam’s Governor Lou Leon Guerrero said that there were no credible threats to their island, and “we will do everything in our power to keep Guam safe”.
“Our people have always been resilient in the face of uncertainty, and today, as we watch our nation take action overseas, that strength matters more than ever,” she said.
“Guam is proud to support the men and women who serve our country — and we feel the weight of that commitment every day as home to vital military installations.”
She said she and her team have been in close touch with local military leaders.
“I encourage everyone to stay calm and informed by official sources, to look out for one another, and to hold in our thoughts the troops, their loved ones, and all innocent people caught in this conflict.”
Lieutenant-Governor Josh Tenorio said: “What is unfolding in the Middle East is serious, and it reminds us that our prayers and our preparedness must go hand in hand.
“While we stand by our troops and support our national security, we also remain committed to the values of peace and resilience. Our teams are working closely with our Homeland Security advisor, Joint Region Marianas, Joint Task Force-Micronesia, and the Guam National Guard to stay ahead of any changes.”
Long-time warnings
Meanwhile, Mark Anufat Terlaje-Pangelinan, one of the protesters during the recent 32nd Pacific Islands Environmental Training Symposium on Saipan, said he was not surprised by the US attack on Iran.
“This is exactly what we concerned citizens have been warning against for the longest time,” he said.
Terlaje-Pangelinan said the potential of CNMI troops and the Marianas itself being dragged into a wider and more protracted conflict was disheartening.
“Perpetuating the concept of the CNMI being a tip of the spear more than being a bridge for peace between the Pacific landscapes does more harm than good.
“The CNMI will never be fully prepped for war. With our only safe havens being the limited number of caves we have on island, we are at more risk to be under attack than any other part of America.”
Iran requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, it said in a letter issued Sunday, urging the council to condemn the US strikes on its nuclear facilities.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described the US military action in Iran as a direct threat to world peace and security.
Officials in Iran are downplaying the impact of US strikes on its nuclear facilities, particularly the Fordow site buried deep in the mountains, in sharp contrast with Trump’s claims that the attack “obliterated” them.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
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BEARING WITNESS: By Cole Martin in occupied Bethlehem
Kia ora koutou,
I’m a Kiwi journo in occupied Bethlehem, here’s a brief summary of today’s events across the Palestinian and Israeli territories from on the ground.
The US struck three of Iran’s nuclear facilities overnight, entering the illegal aggression on Iran with heavy airstrikes despite no evidence that nuclear weapons are being developed. Israel continued its strikes attacking dozens of locations across Iran throughout the day. Three were killed in an Israeli drone attack on an ambulance in central Iran. At least 400 have been killed and 2000 injured, according to the latest Health Ministry figures.
*
Heavy Iranian retaliation strikes on Israeli territories saw about 27 injured.
*
At least 47 killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza today, 18 while seeking aid. Two killed and 15 wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house west of Gaza city. The murder of firefighter Muhammad Ghurab brings the total Gaza civil defence casualties to 121, representing 14.3 percent of its employees.
Today I met a 10-year-old kid called Hassan on the streets of Bethlehem. He was looking for work. His dad had recently stopped working, unemployed like many in Bethlehem; around 80 percent of jobs here depend on tourism. He lives in al-Khader village, an hour’s walk away, but without opportunities there he had walked all this way in an attempt to help support his family.
Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank has suffocated the economy here for decades. Now, as the genocidal war on Gaza continues and Israeli aggression expands to Iran, drawing in the USA and threatening regional collapse, a 10-year-old boy takes to the streets of Bethlehem to find work.
*
Israel’s illegal siege across the West Bank continues. Large numbers of Israeli soldiers conducted extensive raids on Bethlehem’s Dheisheh camp including demolitions, arrests, and interrogations last night. Mass demolitions continue across Nour Shams camp in the north, and further arrests, demolitions, and incursions took place across the West Bank. Bethlehem’s gasoline shortages continue due to Israel’s ongoing siege.
*
Twenty five killed in a terror attack targeting Mar Elias Church in Damascus, Syria.
Cole Martin is an independent New Zealand photojournalist based in the Middle East and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
Asia Pacific Report
The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa has called on New Zealanders to condemn the US bombing of Iran.
PSNA co-chair Maher Nazzal said in a statement that he hoped the New Zealand government would be critical of the US for its war escalation.
“Israel has once again hoodwinked the United States into fighting Israel’s wars,” he said.
“Israel’s Prime Minister has [been declaring] Iran to be on the point of producing nuclear weapons since the 1990s.
“It’s all part of his big plan for expulsion of Palestinians from Palestine to create a Greater Israel, and regime change for the entire region.”
Israel knew that Arab and European countries would “fall in behind these plans” and in many cases actually help implement them.
“It is a dreadful day for the Palestinians. Netanyahu’s forces will be turned back onto them in Gaza and the West Bank.”
‘Dreadful day’ for Middle East
“It is just as dreadful day for the whole Middle East.
“Trump has tried to add Iran to the disasters of US foreign policy in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. The US simply doesn’t care how many people will die.”
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters “acknowledged the development in the past 24 hours”, including President Trump’s announcement of the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
He described it as “extremely worrying” military action in the Middle East, and it was critical further escalation was avoided.
“New Zealand strongly supports efforts towards diplomacy. We urge all parties to return to talks,” he said.
“Diplomacy will deliver a more enduring resolution than further military action.”
The Australian government said in a statement that Canberra had been clear that Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programme had been a “threat to international peace and security”.
It also noted that the US President had declared that “now is the time for peace”.
“The security situation in the region is highly volatile,” said the statement. “We continue to call for de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy.”
Iran calls attack ‘outrageous’
However, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, said the “outrageous” US attacks on Iran’s “peaceful nuclear installations” would have “everlasting consequences”.
His comments come as an Iranian missile attack on central and northern Israel wounded at least 23 people.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Dr Mehran Kamrava, a professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar, said the people of Iran feared that Israel’s goals stretched far beyond its stated goal of destroying the country’s nuclear and missile programmes.
“Many in Iran believe that Israel’s end game, really, is to turn Iran into Libya, into Iraq, what it was after the US invasion in 2003, and/or Afghanistan.
“And so the dismemberment of Iran is what Netanyahu has in mind, at least as far as Tehran is concerned,” he said.
US attack ‘more or less guarantees’ Iran will be nuclear-armed within decade
‘No evidence’ of Iran ‘threat’
Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said there had been “absolutely no evidence” that Iran posed a threat.
“Neither was it existential, nor imminent,” he told Al Jazeera.
“We have to keep in mind the reality of the situation, which is that two nuclear-equipped countries attacked a non-nuclear weapons state without having gotten attacked first.
“Israel was not attacked by Iran — it started that war; the United States was not attacked by Iran — it started this confrontation at this point.”
Dr Parsi added that the attacks on Iran would “send shockwaves” throughout the world.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
