فعالان ضد جنگ - نشست ورشو. EUROPE: DON'T JOIN POMPEO’S WAR ON 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 host a gathering on Middle East peace with all Middle Eastern nations including Iran.

Dear Representatives of the European Union,

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently announced that the United States and Poland will jointly host a ministerial meeting on the Middle East in Warsaw on February 13-14. This meeting aims to set the stage for an unnecessary conflict with Iran. We urge you NOT to attend the meeting and instead host an alternative one with all nations of the region, including Iran.

Secretary Pompeo says the summit will bring together representatives from 70 countries from Asia, Africa, the Western Hemisphere, Europe and the Middle East. While the meeting will address issues of peace, stability, freedom and security, a major part of the agenda is, according to Secretary Pompeo, to make sure “that Iran is not a destabilizing force.” This meeting is part of the US campaign against Iran that includes withdrawing from the Iran nuclear agreement and re-imposing sanctions that the U.S. had lifted as part of the deal.

A major step forward for peace and security in the Middle East was precisely the Iran nuclear agreement, which was negotiated by the US, Iran, France, the UK, Germany, Russia and China, and was approved by the European Union and the UN Security Council. The other signatories have remained in the agreement and have been looking for ways to circumvent US sanctions on Iran. It is the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the long-negotiated agreement and its increased hostility towards Iran that have added to the instability of the region and are threatening to unleash another devastating war in the Middle East.

The US is fanning the flames of conflict.

Since European countries are still a party to the Iran nuclear agreement and want to improve relations with Iran, it would not make sense for Europe to participate in a conference hostile to Iran. Your non-participation would send a critical message to other countries to follow your lead.

We urge all nations to skip this conference and instead pressure the US administration to rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement. We urge you to host an alternative gathering with all Middle Eastern nations, including Iran, to stop terrorism and end wars, including the catastrophic war in Yemen.

Signed,*

Bill Kidd, Member of the Scottish Parliament

Angus MacDonald, Member of the Scottish Parliament

James Dornan, Member of the Scottish Parliament

John Finne, Member of the Scottish Parliament

Fulton MacGregor, Member of the Scottish Parliament

Joan McAlpine, Member of the Scottish Parliament

Rona MacKay, Member of the Scottish Parliament

Medea Benjamin, Co-Director, CODEPINK for Peace

Jodie Evans, Co-Director, CODEPINK for Peace

Lindsey German, Stop the War Coalition UK

Chris Nineham, Stop the War Coalition UK

Tarak Kauff, Veterans for Peace

David Hartsough, Director, Peaceworkers

Hassan El-Tayyab, Co-Director at Just Foreign Policy

Bill Fletcher Jr., former President of TransAmerica Forum

Ann Wright, retired US Army Colonel

Rebecca Vilkomerson, Executive Director, Jewish Voice for Peace

Alice Slater, Coordinating Committee Member, World Beyond War

Kevin Zeese, co-director, Popular Resistance

Margaret Flowers, co-director, Popular Resistance

Joseph Carl Gerson, President, Campaign for Peace Disarmament and Common Security

Ludo De Brabander, spokesperson, Vrede vzw, Belgium

Phyllis Bennis, fellow, Institute for Policy Studies

Kevin Martin, President, Peace Action

Gar Smith, co-founder and director, Environmentalists Against War

Jacqueline Cabasso, National Co-convener, United for Peace and Justice

Mubarak Awad, President, Nonviolence International

Michael Beer, Executive Director, Nonviolence International

John Hallam, UN Nuclear Disarmament Campaigner, People for Nuclear Disarmament, Australia

Junko Abe, representative, Nuclear Free Ehime, Japan

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space

Lisa Pelletti Clark, co-president, International Peace Bureau, Italy

Theresa Kresse, coordinator, International Peace Bureau, Germany

David Swanson, Director, World BEYOND War

Corazon Valdez-Fabros, Vice President, International Peace Bureau, Philippines

Sussan Tahmasebi, Executive Director, FEMENA

Trita Parsi, author

Mark Weisbrot, Executive Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research

Mitchell Plitnick, researcher, Lobe Log

Elaine Scarry, professor, Harvard University

Paul Shannon, committee member, American Friends Service Committee

Fatemeh Keshavarz, professor, University of Maryland

Paul Barker, Peace Corps Iran Association  

Mark Solomon, former co-chair, United States Peace Council

Carolyn Eisenberg, professor, Hofstra University

Gayle McLaughlin, interim chair, California Progressive Alliance

Janice Sevre-Duszynska, media rep, Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests

Foad Izadi, professor, University of Tehran

Jamal Abdi, president, National Iranian American Council

Gerry Condon, president, Veterans for Peace

Gary Ghiradi, communications director, The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth

Farideh Farhi, professor, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Charles Richard Mayson, New Zealand

Seth Morrison, Jewish Voice for Peace

Isam Suleiman, Palestinian Christians Acting for Peace

Melody Moezzi Esq., author, attorney, activist

V. Rev. Fr. George Makhlouf, Chaplain - Spiritual Adviser, Palestinian Christians Acting for Peace

Jeanette G. Gottlieb, president, Peace Corps Iran Association

Rev. Catherine Alder, retired pastor and counselor, United Church of Christ

Carolyn Yale, board member, Peace Corps Iran Association

David Webb, chair, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, United Kingdom

George Muedeking, mission elder, Albuquerque Mennonite Church

Lucas Wirl, co-chair, No to War-No to NATO, Germany

Alfred L. Marder, president, US Peace Council

Leah Bolger, chair coordinating committee, World BEOYND war

Charlotte Phillips, chairperson, Brooklyn for Peace,

Abbas Edalat, founder, Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran, UK

Lia Tsirdava, executive secretary, Peace Committee of Georgia, Georgia

Andreu miquel Ginestet, founder, COBAWU Institut, Germany

Brion Edouard, D'accord, Mouvement Chrétien pour la Paix Belgiqu, Belgium

Jean Athey, Peace Action Montgomery

*these signatures are representative of individuals and not necessarily organizations

https://www.codepink.org/europe