The Bush administration is intent on not permitting Iran to continue its development of nuclear energy, charging that it will be used for weapons. Tehran insists that, as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it has a right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and that it has no intention of developing a bomb. Neither the CIA nor United Nations weapons inspectors have found convincing evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program. But the Bush administration is pressing the UN Security Council for new sanctions against Iran, harsher than those that have existed for years.

Scott Ritter argues that the Bush administration is using the threat of Tehran developing nuclear weapons as a pretext to attack Iran to bring about regime change there and make the country amenable to US political and economic domination of the Middle East.

The Israeli government sees Iran’s development of nuclear energy as a military threat to its survival because Tehran supports the Palestinians in their struggle for statehood. There is serious danger of a pre-emptive attack against Iran by Israel with U.S. approval and back-up.

We must work hard to end the US threat to Iran and the threat of nuclear weapons around the world. That means reducing and finally eliminating the stockpiles of the bomb in all nations, including our own. It also requires repudiation of the Bush administration’s strategy for global military and economic empire.

Although the current regime in Iran is undemocratic, if we truly believe in democracy, we must trust to the Iranian people alone to change their regime. What Washington can do to facilitate this is to end Iranians’ fear of U.S. aggrandizement.

We must persuade our government to take no hostile action against Iran nor impose new sanctions on it but rather negotiate differences and lower tensions in the Middle East by withdrawing as fast as we can from Iraq and assisting the Palestinians and Israelis to resolve their dispute.

What We Can Do
Inform ourselves about the dispute between Washington and Tehran, learn more about Iran’s history and its people. Listen to Iranians and Iranian-Americans by inviting them to public meetings, our universities, schools and organizations.

Sign the on-line petition “No War With Iran” at www.peace-action.org, which will be delivered to Congress and the President in early January.

Write letters and op-eds to the press, respond to radio call-in shows.

Contact and visit our congressional representatives and senators. Urge them to
Oppose Bush’s pursuit of UN sanctions on Iran for developing nuclear energy for legal peaceful uses.
Call for direct negotiations between Washington and Tehran.
Work for a resolution declaring that the 2002 congressional authorization of the use of force against terrorism that Bush used to invade Iraq cannot be used against Iran.
Insist that any hostile action that Bush takes against Iran must be approved in advance by Congress.
Work for repeal by Congress of current sanctions against Iran and funding for clandestine US forces already in Iran as well as Iranian opposition groups.
Meet with their parliamentary counterparts in Iran.
Support a congressional resolution affirming that if Israel undertakes a pre-emptive attack on Iran, US aid to Tel Aviv will be cut off.
The local telephone numbers of our legislators are: Sen. Diane Feinstein: 415-393-0707; Sen. Barbara Boxer 415-403-0100; Rep. Lynn Woolsey: 415-507-9554 or 707-542-7182; Rep. Nancy Pelosi: 415-556-4862. Each has her own website with a space to record your message.

MARIN PEACE AND JUSTICE COALITION: 415-721-2844; www.mpjc.org
DON’T ATTACK IRAN COALITION: 415-565-0201 ext 14

CHRONOLOGY OF MODERN IRAN
Constitutional Revolution: Protests of clerics and merchants against foreign domination. Shah signs new constitution that establishes elected parliament and limits his power.
Anglo-Russian Agreement divides Iran into spheres of British and Russian influence.
Oil discovered (leads to Anglo-Persian (later British Petroleum) First Middle-Eastern oil found.
British government acquires 51% of Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
Reza Kahn, Iranian officer of Persian Cossacks, seizes power from Shah, and establishes Pahlavi Dynasty in 1925.
Shah Reza Pahlavi cancels British oil concession; Anglo-Iranian Co. wins it back.
Formerly known as Persia, Iran become country’s official name, meaning the land of the Aryans, the ancient cavalry.
Shah’s pro-Nazi allegiance in World War II leads to Anglo-Soviet occupation and deposition of Shah in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Allied forces occupy Iran and transport munitions to USSR to push back Nazis.
Mohammad Mossadeq, the Iranian premier, submits a plan to Parliament to nationalize the country’s oil, limit foreign interests in Iran and the shah’s powers.

A coup engineered by US and British intelligence drives Mossadeq from power, purporting that he would open the way to the Communists. Shah Reza Pahlavi returns to power, ensuring support for Western oil interests.
The Shah introduces the White Revolution allegedly to modernize Iran, which includes land reform and the right of women to vote. The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and other clerics oppose these reforms. His arrest leads to demonstrations and his exile in Iraq, then Paris from where he criticizes US military forces in Iran. The US ships advanced military materiel to the Shah who reins in opposition with his much feared secret police, SAVAK.
Opposition to the Shah mounts, led by the Islamic Revolutionary Council inspired by Khomeini. The police fire on demonstrators provoking further resistance.

The opposition drives the Shah from power. Khomeini returns triumphantly and proclaims the Islamic Republic of Iran with a constitution that establishes the supremacy of the clerics, including the Supreme Leader, a position filled by Khomeini. The US Embassy in Tehran is seized along with 52 American “hostages.”
President Carter attempts to negotiate their release without success and sends a helicopter commando raid to free them which fails. They are released minutes after President Reagan is sworn in the following year, likely as the result of back-channel negotiations. Saddam Hussein leads Iraqis against Iran in order to acquire full access to a waterway to the Persian Gulf. The US mainly supports Hussein, providing him with air reconnaisance and weapons, including chemicals for poison gas that is used against the Iranians. The war lasts eight years, the longest of the 20th century, killing millions.

When Israel invades Lebanon in order to eliminate the Palestine Liberation Organization, Iran sends units of its Revolutionary Guards to support Lebanese Muslims, particularly Hezbollah that had formed to resist the Israelis and is supplied by Syria also. The US backs the Christian Phalange in Lebanon. There are killings and kidnappings on all sides.

The US Embassy in Beirut is bombed with 17 Americans killed. President Reagan blames Hezbollah and sends in US Marines to separate the sides. A truck bomb kills 241 Marines in a barracks at Beirut airport, Hezbollah being the suspected perpetrator. The Marines are withdrawn. A second bombing of the US Embassy occurs in 1984, killing 24.
The Iran-Contra affair. The Reagan administration trades arms, provided by Israel, to Iran, which was running out of weapons in its war with Iraq. In exchange, American hostages held in Lebanon are released. The cabal uses the exorbitant profits it earns to fund Washington’s clandestine mercenaries fighting the Sandanistas in Nicaragua. The plot under US law is illegal, and its perpetrators are exposed, serving minimal time or none.

The US cruiser Vincennes shoots down an Iranian airliner over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard. Reagan apologizes. The UN brokers a peace agreement between Iraq and Iran concluding their war.
Khomeini dies of heart attack and is replaced by Ali Khamenei as Supreme Leader.
Iran remains neutral in Gulf War, denouncing Saddam Hussein for invading Kuwait and warning the US against any long-term presence in the region.

President Clinton announces “dual containment” policy to isolate Iran for its alleged support of terrorists, undermining Middle East peace efforts, and pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Clinton signs embargo banning trade with Iran. Two years later Congress expands this in the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act.

When a truck bomb kills 19 US servicemen in the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Hezbollah is blamed along with Iranian officials.
Iranians elect by a landslide the moderate cleric Mohammad Khatami president. During the next two years there is an easing of tensions between Iran and the US.
Washington allows the sale of food and medical supplies to Iran.
Reformists are elected to control Parliament.

Reformer Khatami wins presidential election by landslide. But Congress extends sanctions for five years, although the new Bush administration seeks only two. Khamenei condemns US attack on Afghanistan saying US wants to expand its power in the region. Russia signs agreement for large arms sales to Iran that the US opposes, claiming Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism. Khatami condemns Osama bin Laden and his 9/11 attack but rejects US charge that Iran sponsors terrorism.

Bush charges Iran along with Iraq and North Korea as being an “axis of evil.” Russian technicians begin construction of Iran’s first nuclear reactor at Bushehr. While reformist leaders press for negotiations between Iranian and US legislators, hard liners Khamenei and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld decry the actions of each other’s governments.
Iran agrees to suspend uranium enrichment and allow tougher UN inspections. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) finds no evidence of a nuclear weapons’ program.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Tehran’s ultra-conservative and outspoken mayor, is elected president.
Tehran says it has achieved uranium enrichment and will increase it for peaceful purposes only. The IAEA, while conceding there is no evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, reports Tehran has violated the UN Security Council’s demand that it suspend nuclear development. The US presses the Security Council for harsher sanctions on Iran, which to date have not been imposed. Congress passes Iran Freedom Support Act renewing sanctions against Iran and authorizing US funding of groups working for “democracy” there but prohibits funds for force against Iran.

Iran, formerly known as Persia, is a Muslim country in which Shia far outnumber Sunnis. Persians are the most numerous of its mixed ethnic populations. The official language is Farsi, not Arabic. Its population is over 70 million, almost three time that of Iraq. Its area is four times Iraq’s and is comparable to the size of the US lower 48, west of the Rockies.