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DENUNCIATIONS OF IRAN LACED WITH DOUBLE STANDARDS.
28 October 2005
The Irish Anti-War Movement said that the protest over Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s comments on Israel is laced with double standards
IRISH ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT
Press Release – October 28th
DENUNCIATIONS OF IRAN LACED WITH DOUBLE STANDARDS.
In a statement the Irish Anti-War Movement said that the storm of protest over Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s comments on Israel is laced with double standards and hypocrisy.
The IAWM said the real agenda behind the hyping up of these comments was to legitimise further US interference in the region and prepare the ground for possible western attacks on Iran.
The IAWM said that questioning the right of the Israeli state to exist is part of a perfectly legitimate debate on how to bring justice and peace to the Middle East.
The IAWM said the current push to impose sanctions on Syria was also part of a US/UK propaganda campaign to justify possible future military strikes.
Richard Boyd Barrett, chairperson of the Irish Anti-War Movement said:
“The comments of the Iranian President are being deliberately hyped up in a US/UK inspired propaganda campaign to justify further western interference in the Middle East.
At the very least Bush and Blair are trying to whitewash their own crimes in Iraq and justify their warmongering in the region. At worst the US and UK is now trying to prepare public opinion in the west for possible military strikes against Iran or Syria.
Tony Blair’s comments, in particular, at the meeting of EU leaders yesterday is an alarming indication that a burst of rhetoric by the Iranian President is being seized upon to justify possible military action. The denunciations of the Iranian leaders comments are laced with hypocrisy and double standards.
The Israeli regime is an obnoxious racist entity based on the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population, an apartheid constitution, the complete denial of Palestinian human rights and the on-going violation of International law. Iran is arguably a far more democratic state than the state of Israel. Israel is also the only state in the region in possession of nuclear weapons. Since its foundation Israel has contributed more than any state in the Middle East to the permanent climate of instability and conflict. Yet we never see threats made by the US or west against Israel in the way we now see against Iran.
Questioning the right of the Israeli state to exist is part of a legitimate debate on how to bring justice and peace in the Middle East. The current consensus among the International political elite is that peace between Jews and Arabs will be achieved by a two-state solution with a Palestinian state and Israeli state side by side in what was historic Palestine. Many that genuinely want to see peace between Jews and Arabs share this view. However, this is only an opinion not an absolute truth. To question this view as probably a majority of people in the Middle East do is also legitimate
Many people that also want peace and justice in the region believe the existence of the Israeli state, based as it is, on the ethnic partition of historic Palestine and the racist law of return is a recipe for permanent conflict and war in the Middle East. This view holds the Israeli state must be dismantled in favour of one state where Jew and Arab live as equals.
To hold this view does not imply anti-Semitism rather it implies that an apartheid state is incompatible with justice or peace. Whether you agree with this view or not, it is part of a legitimate and ongoing debate in the Middle East. This is the context in which we must understand the Iranian President’s comments.
US denunciations of Iran as a threat also stink of unbelievable hypocrisy. The US possesses more nuclear weapons than any other state and has a policy retaining the right to use them on a first strike basis against non-nuclear states. If any state represents a nuclear threat it is the US. It is also aggressive US foreign policy that is now encouraging states across the world to believe the only way to safeguard themselves against US attack is to gain possession of nuclear weapons.
The real worry people should have is that the US and UK administrations are now making seriously threatening noises against both Syria and Iran. It raises the real prospect that the slaughter and destruction visited on the people of Iraq may now be visited on other people of the region.”
For more information Contact Richard Boyd Barrett 087-6329511
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