JOHANNESBURG–On Wednesday, March 11, eleven days after the US, together with Israel, launched deadly missile attacks on Iran, the United Nations Security Council demanded that the Islamic Republic of Iran stop its retaliatory attacks across the Gulf states.
Mind you, the response by Iran is based on the fact that it lacks the capacity to attack the US directly on its own soil–unlike the US which has military bases that enable its confrontational abilities. Thus Iran has resorted to targeting those bases and other facilities tied to the aggressor who is harbored by these so-called gulf states.
According to this UN Security Council’s Resolution 2817—which China and Russian abstained their vote from—Iran is condemned for “egregious attacks” on Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, indicating that those states have an “inherent right of individual or collective self defence”.
But then, what about Iran’s right to self defense? How does the UN Security Council expect this nation to defend itself when it’s not allowed to dismantle the enemy’s capacity to harm it via those complicit neighboring states? Basically, Iran is being told to surrender because when a state is forced to do nothing in the midst of unrelenting attacks the suggestion is that it must allow itself to be obliterated or subject itself to the desires of the aggressor.
The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, rightly responded to this bogus resolution by stating that “the security council is suffering from the lack of justice.”
He asked, “how is it possible that the security council condemned us for defending ourselves and is not condemning the United States and Israel who started this aggression… this is why so many countries have become hopeless about the role of the Security Council”.
Where is the council’s condemnation of Israel for attacking Iran and Lebanon? While continuing to strike Iranian facilities and citizens, Israel is also sending messages in Lebanon for people to vacate their homes and make way for bombs that are supposedly aimed at Hezbollah. According to officials in Lebanon, 773 to 826 people have been killed in the country due to Israeli strikes between March 2 and March 13.
The UN Security Council has proven itself to be a platform to safeguard the international interests of so-called superpowers and colonial countries. Thus any one of the five permanent members of the council can arbitrarily veto a resolution of the council even if it’s supported by the rest of the members. Just a few months ago, the US vetoed for the sixth time, a resolution to stop the illegitimate settler state of Israel from completely annihilating the people in Gaza.
Clearly, countries that lack hegemonic power, and particularly at odds with the US, do not enjoy the council’s protection from unwarranted assaults. Since the initial strike that reportedly killed, amongst other senior leaders, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the US and Israel have continued to launch ceaseless bombardments on Iran.
A few days before this resolution, US president Donald John Trump was calling for the total and unconditional surrender of the Iranian government. And barely two months before the attack on Iran, Trump successfully kidnapped Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and forced his deputy Delcy Rodriguez to toe the line in terms of initiating reforms to allow for American companies to loot the mineral resources of the country.
It is clear that Trump was expecting the same results with the murder of Khamenei and the other key forces of the Iranian government. However, Iran being rooted in a centuries history of defiance and intolerance to foreign control wouldn’t have it!
It matters not if the US and its partner in crime bomb 168 primary school girls and their 14 teachers; whether they bomb hospitals, key energy facilities and financial institutions as they have done, Iran refuses to surrender.
The revolutionary government of Iran totally deserves our salutations for its defiance and will to be self-determing at all costs.
There is nothing more valuable than freedom and self-determination. That is what Africans need to internalize and embody as a core principle of our movement towards the total liberation and unification of our nation and motherland, Africa.
Hands Off Iran!
Hands Off Cuba!
Hands Off Venezuela!
Hands Off Africa!
Uhuru!!!
