NEW PSL STATEMENT It is now crystal clear: Donald Trump is the co-architect of the Israeli war against Iran and shares full responsibility with Benjamin Netanyahu for the extraordinary danger facing the whole world. The Trump administration played an instrumental role in making the brutal attack unfolding against Iran a surprise attack. For months, Trump and his top officials pretended to be negotiating with Iran in order to trick the country’s government into thinking that an attack wouldn’t happen. This was just a ploy to maximize the devastating impact of the unprovoked Israeli attack that has led to so many civilian casualties and involves the assassination of top Iranian leaders and scientists. Trump was in on plans for attack – something he himself acknowledges. When asked by a Wall Street Journal reporter if he had been given a “heads up” about the Israeli attack, Trump replied, “Heads-up? It wasn’t a heads-up. It was, we know what’s going on.” Today, he threatened Iran in a social media post, boasting that, “the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come – And they know how to use it.” The U.S. military is reportedly helping Israel shoot down Iranian missiles and drones, so that the Israeli war machine can devastate Iran with impunity. Trump has framed the war on Iran as a consequence of Iran’s failure to meet the deadline he imposed, “Two months ago I gave Iran a 60 day ultimatum to ‘make a deal.’ They should have done it! Today is day 61. I told them what to do, but they just couldn’t get there.” Trump claimed, “I told them, in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it,’ but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done. I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told.” Trump’s threats encapsulate the arrogance and total disregard for the sovereignty of other countries that is at the heart of U.S. empire. He is now posturing as someone holding Iran at gunpoint, demanding that they accept a deal that deeply infringes on their rights as an independent nation in order to escape the Israeli assault. Make no mistake, the Israeli war against Iran is a clear violation of the UN Charter, and thus a violation of international law. The United States ratified the UN Charter, which is an international treaty, and as a consequence, is the highest law of the land in the United States. The UN Charter strictly forbids a member nation from attacking another nation except in the case of self-defense from an armed attack. Iran has not attacked Israel. The war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu is claiming self-defense, as the Israelis always do when they carry out aggression, but that doesn’t make the assertion true. Netanyahu should be arrested immediately and brought to the Hague for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against peace. Iran, in 2015, negotiated with the United States, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany, and signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which promised Iran relief from crippling economic sanctions in exchange for allowing international inspectors to carry out an intrusive, regular examination of its civilian nuclear energy program to guarantee that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon. The irony could not have been greater, since 5 of the 6 signatories all possess large quantities of nuclear weapons. Nonetheless, Iran agreed and signed the JCPOA. The United States never lived up to its side of the agreement. The Obama administration retained punishing economic sanctions on Iran, and Donald Trump ripped up the agreement when he came to the White House in 2017, calling it the “worst agreement ever.” Trump and the entire U.S. military and foreign policy establishment is prepared to risk a devastating regional or even global war. The U.S. maintains a network of military installations throughout the region, and forces allied with Iran and opposed to U.S. dominance may enter the fighting. The U.S. military could be drawn into an even more active role in the attack, possibly involving “boots on the ground”. This could quickly spiral into a global confrontation even though no side may at this point desire that outcome. Prior to World War One, the Balkan War raged from 1912 to 1913. No one anticipated that this would escalate into the outbreak of the deadliest conflict in world history up until that point – World War One. But the ultra-aggressive policy of imperialist powers led to an uncontrollable climbing of the escalation ladder. The goal of the U.S. government and Israel is to weaken Iran by inflicting devastating blows to its military and population, which in their view would ideally lead to regime change. A long-standing goal of the U.S. establishment has been the installation of a client government in Iran that would follow the orders of Washington and Wall Street – like the brutal dictatorship of the Shah that ruled the country from 1953 to 1979. To do it, they are willing to risk countless lives. Everyone around the world has a reason to raise their voice against Trump and Netanyahu’s illegal and unjust war. Read the statement on Liberation News: liberationnews.org/psl-state…