Press Release, Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII)

The Stop the War Coalition annual conference on Saturday 27th October in London which was attended by 480 delegates and observers representing 118 local Stop the War groups, affiliated trade unions, political parties and various campaign organisations, such as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) adopted CASMII’s resolution on Iran.

Among the prominent speakers at the conference were: Seumas Milne (Guardian columnist), George Galloway (MP), Phil Shiner (Lawyer of the Year), Kate Hudson (CND), Sami Ramidani (Iraqi Journalist), and Jeremy Corbyn (MP).

The central focus of the conference was the imminence of a US attack on Iran. It launched a day of action against an attack on Iran on November 24th (November 22nd in the colleges). In the background was the unprecedented escalation of the US war drive towards military confrontation with Iran by designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organisation and by imposing the harshest set of sanctions against Iran since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

From Campaign Iran, Somayeh Zadeh addressed the conference and debunked the many myths and repeated distortions about Iran while presenting a balanced view of the real situation in the country. In his contribution, Abbas Edalat stressed that the best way to support the Iranian people, including in their democratic aspirations, is to remove the foreign threat against Iran.

Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran, under the umbrella of Campaign Iran, proposed the main resolution on Iran which was accepted by a majority vote. The resolution warned of the danger of Britain being embroiled in yet another US pre-emptive and illegal war and demanded that the Brown government rejects the military option against Iran, that it withdraws the British troops from the Iranian border, that it ends its support for the Security Council, EU and the recent US sanctions against Iran. and that it supports the IAEA-Iran agreement, respects its findings and allows it time to work.

Crucially, the resolution requests the Stop the War Coalition to allocate resources now to prevent military action against Iran. Mehrnaz Shahabi from CASMII who moved the resolution stressed upon the demonstrated ability of the Stop the War at galvanising support and mobilising opposition to war, in its 2 million strong historic demonstration of 15th February 2003, just before the illegal invasion of Iraq. She urged the Steering Committee of the Stop the War Coalition to immediately allocate resources to lobby MPs and to set up a parliamentary committee to put pressure on Brown government to change course. She highlighted the 200 million dollar demonisation campaign of the Neo Con backed Freedom Watch against Iran and urged the Steering Committee to allocate resources for campaign in the media to challenge the rampant distortions and demonisation of Iran which are paving the path to war.

The main speeches of the conference can be viewed here. 

 For more information or to contact CASMII please visit http://www.campaigniran.org.

... Payvand News - 10/30/07 ...