CASMII Press Release

6 June 2007

CASMII condemns Republican candidates for refusing to rule out using nukes against Iran

The Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII) condemns in the strongest possible terms the declared policies of four US Republican presidential hopefuls who have refused to rule out a pre-emptive military attack against Iran including the use of nuclear weapons against that country.

In a debate on Tuesday June 5, in Manchester N.H., four of the ten Republican candidates, namely Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Massachusetts Fov. Mitt Romney and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, declared that they would use tactical nuclear weapons against Iran.

Such threats themselves are against international law and violate both the UN Charter and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Rostam Pourzal of CASMII US said today:

"As Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), the only anti-war Republican candidate, later stated on CNN, Iran is not a threat to the US. In fact, Iran is not a threat to any country including Israel. Any pre-emptive military attack against Iran would be a criminal and unlawful act which would bring a major conflagration in the whole of the Middle East and the Islamic World sending shock waves across the globe with profound unintended consequences. The use of any nuclear weapons would be the greatest crime of all and would lead to a massive acceleration in proliferation of nuclear weapons across the world."

It is feared that if unchallenged in the mass media and the international community, any refusal to rule out the option of launching a nuclear attack against Iran desensitizes the public opinion about using nuclear weapons on the one hand and makes a conventional military attack on Iran look acceptable and tolerable on the other.

Pourzal added:

"The international community has seen the catastrophe that the illegal and criminal invasion of Iraq has created for the people of that country. CASMII calls on the American people and the international community to strongly condemn the despicable remarks of the four warmongers in the list of the ten Republican presidential candidates. The US-Iran stand-off should be resolved peacefully by direct and immediate negotiations between the US and Iran without any precondition on all points of dispute including Iran's nuclear programme."

For more information visit  http://www.campaigniran.org

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