Denver Anti-War Action (DAWA) condemns the recent US attacks on Iran, as well as the US’s decision to re-escalate sanctions on Iranian oil. Iran and the US recently signed a memorandum of understanding which provides a path for the war to end. The first item in the memorandum is an immediate and permanent end to military actions by the US, Iran, or their allies on all fronts—including Israeli occupation of Lebanon and attacks on Lebanese soil.
Denver Anti-War Action further condemns Israel’s continued occupation of southern Lebanon, and the US’s support for this occupation. Rather than restrain Israel the US has allowed it, at every opportunity over the past months, to wield U.S-made taxpayer-funded weapons against the people of Lebanon and Palestine.
As well as ongoing violence throughout Palestine, Israel is now continuing its occupation, displacement, and murder of Lebanese civilians.
This is not a case of Israel “going rogue.”
The US has all the leverage it needs to make Israel abide by the latest agreement. All the US has to do is stop funding and arming Israel.
This is a deliberate choice by the US to try and avoid its obligations under the agreement with Iran: the US engaged in separate talks with Israel and Lebanon to allow Israel to continue occupying parts of Lebanon for an undefined amount of time.
These events are the real cause behind recent escalations, not the dispute over which routes ships should use when crossing the Strait of Hormuz. The last few weeks have been defined by US hypocrisy, as the US undermines the deal at every turn while expecting Iran to uphold it.
Rightfully, Iran is not taking this lying down and has closed the Strait of Hormuz. The US is now using this as an excuse to attack Iran again, launching numerous airstrikes and threatening—again—to annihilate Iran. The US claims that Iran has been breaking the deal, but we see through their lies: the US is losing this war, and is trying to get its way through trickery.
It should not be a surprise that the US wants to get out of its agreement with Iran. The fact that the US signed it is a mark of how badly the US is losing this war. When the Trump administration foolishly started this war, they arrogantly claimed that they would achieve regime change in Iran and install a regime friendlier to Trump.
Later, the Trump administration claimed that any deal with Iran would need to open the Strait of Hormuz, remove Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium from the country, and severely restrict Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Today, the Islamic Republic stands strong.
The US conceded that Iran will manage the Strait of Hormuz, and it will likely charge fees to ships passing through. Ballistic missiles were not even mentioned in the Memorandum. Trump even publicly conceded that Iran can downblend its heavily enriched uranium within the country. This deal crossed every US “red line” while Iran’s red lines remain intact.
Considering that the US’s war is illegal, unprovoked, and unjustified, this is a reasonable way for the war to end.
This was likely the best deal the US was going to get, and Trump seems determined to blow it up.
The people of the US did not want this war, did not ask for this war, and never stood to gain anything from this war. The Trump admin recklessly provoked Iran, assuming they could win quickly and make easy money for their friends in the military-industrial complex and the oil industry. Obviously, they were wrong.
This is why a broad anti-war movement is needed: to stop US aggression and imperialism. To enforce the demands of the people that this war end, and that US foreign policy stops being dictated by the interests of the Epstein class.
We demand that the US stop all strikes on Iran, abide by the Islamabad Memorandum, and take whatever action is necessary to end the Israeli occupation of Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank.
End US Aid to Israel!
Stand with Iran and Lebanon!
No more US wars!