Collective Statement Against War, Warmongering, and Illusions About Foreign Invasion: It Is Time to Distinguish Our Position Decisively

14 June 2025

This statement is an invitation to think about responsibility and agency in the current momentous situation.    The signatories call on all to open an alternative pathway to counter both the Iranian regime’s warmongering and those who have set their hopes on foreign invasion and encourage it.

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The war has started.  Every war has a background and various causes.  Highlighting this or that cause should not lead us to ignore the immediate cause.  If so, all wars become inevitable.   The immediate cause that has made this war inevitable is  Israel’s attack on Iran.  This attack was launched with the knowledge of the U.S., and has relied on U.S. intelligence sharing and what Trump called “great American equipment” which makes the U.S. a partner.  It has been praised by the president of the U.S.  

Israel’s pretext for this attack was to counter a nuclear threat from Iran. Let us not forget that Israel itself is a country that has been pursuing a secret military nuclear program and has not joined the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons.   It is currently promoting the biggest mass slaughter of the century and has become infamous for its brazen and rogue behavior in international relations.  Therefore, it should be the last country entitled to opine on the nuclear programs of other countries, much less use this as a pretext to engage in military action against them.

Iran’s rule by Islamic Jurisprudence shows off its power by repressing women, workers, retirees, university students, intellectuals and others who seek freedom, justice and an end to discrimination.  Although it cannot match the wave of Israeli assaults which might soon expand through direct U.S. collaboration, it continues its warmongering.

The regime of Islamic Jurisprudent resorted to uranium to survive.  What started as a strategy for survival, gradually expanded.  A large security, technological and economic establishment was built around it.  The ruling class benefited from it.  When sanctions were imposed on Iran, it viewed them as an opportunity to make money by smuggling goods in and out, raising prices in the production and distribution network, and increasing the intensity of exploitation.  The cult of uranium and its enrichment organization was placed at the center of the military-ideological-economic  multiplex of the rule of Islamic Jurisprudence. This regime gambled the entire wealth of the country on uranium enrichment.  The obvious result of uranium enrichment became the impoverishment of the county and the further impoverishment of the dispossessed.  The economic and security benefits of the ruling establishment created a stagnation force which led to the regime’s rulers not recognizing the gravity of the latest situation.  And now the regime is doing irreparable damage to the country with its warmongering.

However, we also need to view the problem from the vantage point of the responsibility and agency of civil society and political forces that demand freedom, justice and peace.   It is regrettable that Iran’s nuclear program did not become a major issue in the public sphere.  This is due to the lack of sensitivity to the topics of nuclear militarism, environmental pollution, and war in general.  We can also attribute this to nationalist thought that considers nuclear capacity “an absolute right” and to the paucity of theoretical and analytical discussion concerning the role of the cult of uranium in the repressive establishment and political economy of the regime.

We should have turned Iran’s nuclear program into a topic of discussion and enlightenment at the public level.  We should have consistently highlighted the connection between uranium enrichment and the impoverishment of the county. We should have tied every protest against poverty and deprivation to this issue.  At opportune moments, we should have demanded referenda on the nuclear program, as the program on which the regime is gambling the entire wealth of the country.   Now we need to make up for this negligence.

War darkens and polarizes the political atmosphere.  The regime will continue its usual style of polarizing the environment and will present itself as the side which can defend the country and win the war.  We should not side with the regime.  Instead, we should consistently remind people about its warmongering, the failure of its authoritarian plans in the region and its baseness and bullying.  

However, there is another effort at polarization which presents itself as the alternative to the Iranian regime’s war of “right against wrong.”  In this alternative, Netanyahu and Trump present themselves as “right.”  Simply saying that people’s desperation makes them set their hopes on foreign invasion does not take away from the stupidity of this “alternative.”  From the time of the Constitutional Revolution [1906-1911] to the present, the people of Iran have struggled for freedom and equality.   It is beneath them to set their hopes on killers, authoritarians, racists and enemies of democracy and human equality.

Confusion in taking positions has a long history, and all of us have contributed to it by not doing enough critical thinking.  This confusion has become very dangerous.  We must play a decisive role in clarifying and distinguishing positions, and shed illumination on the reasons which have brought about the current situation.  We call on all to comment on this by focusing on the current war.  The main question is how to achieve peace and freedom.

Our specific demands:

• End the war: Put pressure on the Iranian regime and international pressure on Israel and the U.S. and their allies who promote war.
• End the insane nuclear program. We need to demand a referendum inside Iran.
• Strengthen ties among forces who demand an end to the rule of Islamic Jurisprudence but also rely on the people and foundational norms of freedom, equality and an end to discrimination.

In the alternative politics that we seek to strengthen, the principle of coming together is the means and ends.  We believe that war and setting hope on foreign military powers is definitely not compatible with the goal of freedom, justice and independence.

June 14, 2025

[For a list of initial signatories in Persian click here]