No war with Iran! A statement by the International Socialist Tendency
Sunday 5th January 2020

1. Donald Trump, in ordering the assassination of Qassem Soleimani along with other Iranian and Iraqi military leaders, has committed an act of war that could set the Middle East on fire.
2. The killings no doubt were motivated by short-term political calculations on Trump’s part, but they belong to the latest phase in the crisis of US domination of the region.
3. This crisis can be traced back to the US and British Invasion of Iraq in 2003. The removal of Saddam Hussein and the defeat of the occupation created a power vacuum that both states in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region – Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates – and outside powers, above all Russia, have sought to exploit. Their rivalries have provoked a series of dangerous and bloody conflicts – in Syria, Yemen, and Libya. The US-backed pipeline deal between ...