The Modi government urged to abandon its ‘pro-US, pro-Israel’ foreign policy stance
NEW DELHI — Five major Left parties have strongly condemned the United States for its bombing of targets in Iran, calling it a “grave violation” of Iranian sovereignty and international law. In a statement issued here on Sunday, the parties expressed apprehension that the attack could spark a wider regional conflict in West Asia, further destabilising global geopolitics, with severe economic repercussions, especially for countries like India.
The Left parties also urged the Narendra Modi government to abandon its “pro-US, pro-Israel” foreign policy stance.
Terming the strike a breach of the United Nations Charter, the statement criticised both the US and Israel for justifying their actions on unverified claims about Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
The Left leaders cited the June 19 statement of Rafael Grossi, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), where he emphasised that there was no proof of a systematic effort by Iran to develop nuclear weapons. Even US intelligence agencies, they noted, had not found conclusive evidence of Iran developing the lethal weapons.
The statement alleges that Israel’s strike on Iran on June 12 was aimed at derailing potential negotiations between Tehran and Washington, and the US joining the offensive shows that the US-Israel alliance is bent on imposing war rather than pursuing diplomacy.
“This demonstrates that the US-Israel axis has little regard for their intelligence assessments or any diplomatic process,” the parties said, accusing them of seeking to impose imperialist control over West Asia and its resources, while also fuelling the global military-industrial complex.
The Left parties likened the current situation to the US invasion of Iraq, launched on similarly dubious claims, and called it ironic that a country which had used nuclear weapons in World War II was now invoking the threat of nukes to justify its aggression.
They warned that the aggression would have disastrous implications for global peace and economies, including India’s, which depends heavily on West Asian oil and migrant labour. “The working masses, already reeling under economic distress, will be the worst affected,” the statement noted.
Urging the Indian government to break from its “pro-US, pro-Israel” foreign policy, the parties called for immediate diplomatic efforts to halt the war. They also announced plans to organise nationwide protests and appealed to all peace-loving citizens to join them in condemning “this act of imperialist aggression.”
The statement was jointly signed by MA Baby (CPI-M), D Raja (CPI), Dipankar Bhattacharya (CPI-ML Liberation), Manoj Bhattacharya (RSP), and G Devarajan (Forward Bloc).
