We’ve seen this before, a mixture of fear-mongering, bullying, and lies leading us down a path to war. While we just learned that National Security Advisor John Bolton had asked the Pentagon for plans to bomb Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has just announced that the US will host a summit on the Middle East in Warsaw, Poland on February 13-14. Pompeo’s aim is to set the stage for an unnecessary conflict with Iran.
Instead of a summit to confront Iran, we need the world to pressure the United States to reenter the Iran nuclear deal after Trump’s unilateral withdrawal and to lift the devastating sanctions it has imposed on Iran. Sign our letter asking EU countries to skip Pompeo’s belligerent conference in Warsaw next month and instead convene a gathering on Middle East peace that includes Iran.
Pompeo claims Iran needs to be squeezed until it learns how to act like a “normal country.” But Pompeo is leaning out of a glass house throwing stones. Right after he announced the conference, he was in Saudi Arabia cozying up to war criminal and bone-saw murderer Mohammed bin Salman. What’s so normal about excusing the murder of journalists and supporting the Saudi’s catastrophic war on Yemen?
All the other signatories to the Iran nuclear deal — France, UK, China, Russia, Germany, and Iran — are still abiding by the deal. Only the US has exited. In fact, the European countries are trying to find ways around the US sanctions that affect their companies. It would not make sense for them to join a US-Poland conference aimed at increasing hostility towards Iran. Sign our letter to the EU asking them not to attend this summit but to create an alternative one with all the Middle Eastern nations, including Iran.
EU countries should pressure the US administration to rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement and work with Iran, as well as all other nations in the region, to end the conflicts that have been devastating the region.
Towards peace with Iran,
Medea and Lily, and the entire CODEPINK team
P.S. Join us this Saturday for the Women’s March! Here are materials you can download and all the locations where we will be.
