Peace Group Condemns Washington’s Warmongering Policies on Iran
An American peace group in a statement condemned Washington’s war rhetoric against Iran, and called on the White House to drop its warmongering policies, lift sanctions and opt for diplomacy when dealing with Iran.
Directors of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America adopted a statement on March 28 urging “diplomacy over bombs” in the United States’ relations with Iran.
“The people of the United States have been living in a state of fear for too long,” said the statement in the form an open letter to President Obama signed by BPFNA President Cheryl Dudley. “Far too many policies – bad policies – have been made based on this fear. It is time to turn toward faith and hope and peace.”
Baptist leaders said that is “especially true as yet another round of warmongering begins over Iran.” They asked the president to commit instead to “waging peace”, and called on the US and its allies to use “ethical, humanitarian principles” in responding to the threat posed by the so-called prospect of a nuclear Iran.
“It appears political leaders in the United States and Israel may be seriously calculating the benefits and risks of attacking Iran,” the letter said. “If so, they are pushing the world to moral, financial, ecological and diplomatic peril. This we vigorously protest.”
The letter recognized that a nuclear-armed Iran “could be disastrous” for Iran, the region, Israel and the US but argued a military attack would only make matters worse.
“Recent history proves war isn’t working,” the Baptist leaders said. “We urge you to use every means at your disposal to prevent a strike on Iran by Israel and to pursue a diplomatic resolution to the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.”
Instead of engaging in “competition in belligerent behavior,” the peace group called for “strategies of multilateral diplomacy and other nonviolent initiatives”.
“This would include acting in a manner so the behavior of the US enhances Iran’s sense of national security, to convince them that they do not need nuclear weapons to protect themselves from the US,” the letter said. “In the long term, the US must lead the way in creating a world without nuclear weapons.”
The leaders called for lifting sanctions against Iran, which they said have been ineffective.
“We urge you to find ways to keep Iran within the international community, opening more lines of diplomatic communication and reducing the incentives for Iran’s leaders to take their nuclear capabilities to the next level,” the letter said.
Iran says its nuclear program is a peaceful drive to produce electricity so that the world’s fourth-largest crude exporter can sell more of its oil and gas abroad. Tehran also stresses that the country is pursuing a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.
The US and its western allies allege that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program while they have never presented corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations against the Islamic Republic.
Iran is under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West’s calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment, saying the demand is politically tainted and illogical.
Iran has so far ruled out halting or limiting its nuclear work in exchange for trade and other incentives, saying that renouncing its rights under the NPT would encourage the world powers to put further pressure on the country and would not lead to a change in the West’s hardline stance on Tehran.
