[GPCA Updates] GP RELEASE Green Party to Obama: lay off the threats against Iran, work for a nuke-free Middle East

Mon Jan 23 14:38:49 PST 2012

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES

http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Monday, January 23, 2012

Green Party to President Obama: Hands off Iran; work for a Middle East free of
nuclear weapons and restore good will with the people of Iran

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Green leaders available to speak on foreign
policy: http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-foreign-policy.php

WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party candidates and leaders said today that the US
must avoid a military confrontation with Iran by diplomacy based on the goal
of ridding the Middle East and Asia of nuclear weapons, including Israel,
Pakistan, and India.

The Green Party strongly opposes a military attack on Iran, a country that
poses no threat to the US. Greens compared the deceptive rhetoric now being
used to vilify Iran with the Bush Administration's fraudulent justifications
for a war on Iraq nearly ten years ago, with unconfirmed allegations about
Iran's plans for nuclear arms taking the place of Iraqi WMDs.

On Tuesday, Jan. 24, the Green Party's presidential contenders will discuss
foreign policy and other topics in a live online chat with viewer
participation during President Obama's 2012 State of the Union address, to be
aired on the Green Party's Livestream channel
(http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=471).

• Jill Stein, candidate for the Green Party's 2012 presidential nomination
(http://www.jillstein.org): "The threats of an assault on Iran by Israel or
the U.S., or both, are igniting tensions that could erupt into a larger
conflict. If we object to Iran's nuclear ambitions, the first step in
resolving these tensions is to recognize that no nation has a 'right' to
possess nuclear weapons. The possession of such weapons by any country in the
region is a motivation for other countries to obtain them as well, and Iran
has unfriendly nuclear nations on either side, being Israel and Pakistan. The
United States should press Iran's neighbors to divest themselves of their
nuclear arsenals and to use such pressure as the basis for good-faith
negotiation with Iran."

• Kent Mesplay, candidate for the Green Party's 2012 presidential nomination
(http://www.mesplay.org): "If the US is serious about resolving conflict in
the Middle East, we must reduce the US consumption of fossil fuels and end our
government's subservience to the oil industry. Along with aggravating global
warming, American oil addiction has resulted in aggressive military policies
against some oil-rich nations, like Iraq and Libya, and alliances with
dictatorships in other oil-producers like Saudi Arabia, which has its own
conflicts with Iran as well as ties to al-Qaeda. We must also press Israel to
cease its murderous actions against Palestinians, on display in the recent
invasion of Gaza and abolish internal apartheid policies directed at
Palestinian Israelis, and withhold aid until Israel complies with
international law."

• Michael Canney, Florida Green and member of the Green Party's International
Committee (http://www.gp.org/committees/intl): "Although Iran's government is
a repressive theocracy that has silenced dissent, it poses no current threat
to the U.S.  The US's own belligerence, under the Bush and Obama
administrations, has resulted in wars on three Muslim countries (Iraq,
Afghanistan, and Libya), drone attacks on Pakistan, and support for Israel's
attacks on Palestinians. If the US launches an attack on Iran or supports an
attack by Israel, it will serve to further discredit the US as an honest
broker in the region and will exacerbate an already explosive situation."

• Carol Brouillet, California Green and host of "Community Currency" on the
Progressive Radio Network (http://www.communitycurrency.org): "The recent
assassinations and explosions targeting Iranian scientists are acts of
terrorism, widely believed to have been carried out by Israeli agents with US
complicity. There's no doubt that assassinations of US or Israeli scientists
would be recognized as terrorism if committed by agents dispatched by Iran. As
columnist Glenn Greenwald recently noted, the defendants in an alleged Iranian
murder-for-hire plot to kill a Saudi ambassador on US soil were charged with
'international acts of terrorism'
(http://www.salon.com/2012/01/12/iran_and_the_terrorism_game/singleton). By
refusing to condemn terrorism by a US ally, while justifying suspension of
constitutional procedures for people detained by the US on suspicion of
terrorism, the Obama White House has betrayed an increasing and dangerous
disregard for the rule
  of law." (See also "Timeline / Mysterious deaths and blasts linked to Iran's
nuclear program," Haaretz, Jan. 11, 2012,
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/timeline-mysterious-deaths-and-blasts-linked-to-iran-s-nuclear-program-1.406704)

• Natale "Lino" Stracuzzi, DC Statehood Green Party candidate for delegate to
the US House of Representatives (nonvoting): "60% of Iran's population is
under 30. The Obama Administration is squandering an opportunity for a new
relationship with the future leaders of a country in which many young people
want a more democratic and secular society. The US should work to undo the
damage caused in the early 1950s by the CIA's complicity in the overthrow of
democratically elected president Muhammed Mossadegh and installation of the
Shah, whose brutal regime resulted in the popular embrace of authoritarian
religious leaders, and restore good will between the US and Iran."

See also:

"Perspectives: An Iranian Scientist's Assassination"
Frontline (PBS), Jan. 18, 2012
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2012/01/perspectives-an-iranian-scientists-assassination.html

"Preventing a Nuclear Iran, Peacefully"
By Shibley Telhami and Steven Kul, The New York Times, Jan. 15, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/opinion/preventing-a-nuclear-iran-peacefully.html

 From 2004:
"Obama would consider missile strikes on Iran"
The Chicago Tribune, September 25, 2004
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2004-09-25/news/0409250111_1_nuclear-weapons-iran-missile-strikes

MORE INFORMATION

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• Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus
• GP-TV Twitter page: http://twitter.com/LivestreamGreen

2012 Green Party Presidential Nominating Convention
July 12-15, 2012 in Baltimore, Md.
http://www.gpconvention2012.com

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the
United States
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog

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