Friday, December 22, 2006

Dear Mr Gordon Brown,

We are writing to you on the day that the UN Security Council is voting on a resolution to impose sanctions against Iran, in order to convey our grave concerns regarding the Labour government’s current stance towards Iran and to urge you, as a likely member of a future Labour cabinet, to use your influence to persuade the Prime Minister to enter into meaningful diplomatic dialogue with Iran without any preconditions.

We fear that, as in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, imposing sanctions on Iran based on the current confrontational position adopted by the Bush Administration and seemingly fully endorsed by Tony Blair could lead to some form of military intervention being taken against Iran with catastrophic consequences for the people of Iran, the stability of the region and wider global security: consequences that will likely fall upon yourself to resolve. And all this despite the fact that the latest CIA report has found no evidence of any nuclear weapons programme in Iran.

Kofi Annan also warned on Tuesday that a military intervention against Iran would be “unwise and disastrous” and called for a negotiated settlement.

As the recent mid-term elections and the subsequent resignation of Donald Rumsfeld have demonstrated, the aggressive foreign policy applied in the Middle East is not playing well with Western electorates. Military intervention in Iran, which will be the logical outcome of imposing sanctions on Iran, is likely to further alienate and anger voters and will undoubtedly have a damaging effect both for the Labour Party in the local elections and in the later general election. Unlike Tony Blair, you will face re-election in the coming years and it is therefore within your own interests to voice any private reservations you have about an attack on Iran. Whether done publicly or through internal party structures, we ask you to look deep within yourself and find the courage to take a principled stand on this issue.

We appeal to you to demand UN security members refrain from adopting a sanctions resolution against Iran and invite you to work towards a peaceful diplomatic approach to resolving any disagreement that may exist between US/Britain and Iran by unconditional negotiations.

The delegation to 11 Downing Street on Friday 22nd  December included  Jeremy Corbyn MP, George Galloway MP, Professor Abbas Edalat and a number of distinguished academics and writers from the United Kingdom.