On Saturday morning, Israel and the United States launched a massive airstrike on Iran after weeks of negotiations in which the United States sought to impose its interests using the threat of the largest military buildup in the region since the Iraq War.

The bombings began this morning in Tehran. Israel confirmed its participation in the attacks, which it called “preemptive strikes,” according to the Defense Ministry. The United States launched the attacks from the USS Lincoln, located in the southern Gulf. According to the New York Times, U.S. officials expect the attack to be far more extensive than the U.S. strikes last June against Iran’s nuclear facilities during the “Twelve-Day War.”

The operation, dubbed “Lion’s Roar” by Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has already targeted the cities of Tehran, Qom, Kermanshah, Isfahan, and Karaj. According to several sources, the attacks are targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities, its ballistic missile program, and key regime officials. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been evacuated.

The ongoing attacks come after weeks of negotiations marked by intense imperialist pressure from the United States and Israel. The United States seeks to impose nothing less than Iran’s complete abandonment of its nuclear program; the destruction of the uranium enrichment sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan; a ban on civilian uranium enrichment for energy purposes; and the complete dismantling of its ballistic missile program.

On Friday night, signs of imminent war multiplied across the region: several embassies were evacuated, the U.S. embassy in Qatar ordered its personnel to shelter in place, and flights across the region were cancelled.

Donald Trump released an eight-minute speech on Truth Social early Saturday morning, announcing the United States’ entry into the war against Iran and calling for the overthrow of the Iranian government. “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world.” Trump even stated that the United States could lose American soldiers in the ongoing war, setting the stage for a high-intensity conflict.

Netanyahu said the operation aimed to dismantle the Iranian regime, targeting high-ranking regime officials and civilian targets. On Saturday Israeli bombs targeted schools in two cities; in the souther city of Minab, strikes hit an elementary girls’ school in Minab, murdering dozens of students.

Iran has responded to the U.S./Israeli attacks by launching missiles at northern Israel and attacking U.S. military bases in the region.

In his remarks, Trump called on Iranians to rise up against the Iranian regime. However, these imperialist attacks have nothing to do with defending the interests of the working classes and the peoples of the region who have waged their own resistance to the regime. Hand in hand with imperialism, such attacks only strengthen the chains of subjugation and oppression of the Iranian people and across the Middle East. Their objective is to reinforce imperialist control over the Middle East and protect the interests of the State of Israel as it continues its genocide against the Palestinian people.

In the United States, all those who have been fighting the attacks of the Trump administration — against ICE’s attacks on immigrants and imperialist aggression in Latin America, as well as the administration’s attacks against trans people, healthcare, and education — must unite with the vast anti-imperialist movement against the genocide in Palestine to denounce these acts of war. It is time to take to the streets in a massive repudiation of imperialist aggression and war that will be devastating for working and poor people across Iran and the Middle East, uniting across borders to demand not another bomb, not another dime for imperialist war.

Down with imperialist attacks against Iran!

U.S. troops out of the Middle East!

For a mass movement against imperialist aggression, led by the working class and youth of the world!

The post No War on Iran: We Must Build an Anti-Imperialist Movement to Stop Trump appeared first on Left Voice.

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