CPDCS also opposes U.S. complicity in these attacks, at the very least by having provided Israel with weapons used in the disastrous and illegal attacks and by providing Israel with the defensive anti-missile and drone shield that provided Israeli leaders with confidence that Iranian counterattacks could be limited.
No nation, not the United States, Israel, Russia, nor the other six nuclear weapons states should possess these genocidal or omnicidal weapons of mass destruction. CPDCS supported the JCPOA negotiated by the Obama Administration which President Trump recklessly subverted by withdrawing from during his first term in office. We have supported the recent U.S.-Iranian diplomacy which has been sabotaged by Israel’s attack.
We have opposed Iran’s nuclear enrichment to near nuclear weapons capability and recognize the IAEA’s recent disturbing report. Despite our opposition to nuclear power generation, CPDCS urged completion of negotiations to limit Iranian enrichment via a consortium with neighboring states. This would have led to a de facto Israel/U.S. – Iranian ceasefire and to greater regional stability and prosperity.
Israel’s attacks reflect the double standard that one nation can threaten another with nuclear annihilation while the other remains vulnerable without nuclear deterrent capabilities. Such ambitions only increase the dangers of nuclear war, as deterrence only works until it doesn’t. In 1964, the U.S. and the Soviet Union considered a preemptive attack on China to prevent its development of nuclear weapons, but they wisely stepped back from that abyss.
Israel’s unprovoked attack against Iran threatens a wider and extended war that may draw in the United States more deeply. Iranian knowledge about how to enrich uranium and to build a nuclear arsenal will not be eliminated with the attacks; Iran’s nuclear facilities are buried deeply underground, in several cases within mountains, and cannot be completely destroyed without more powerful weapons that can only be provided by the United States, by use of nuclear weapons, or by a catastrophic ground invasion. It is likely that Israel’s attacks will reinforce those within Iran who are committed to developing a nuclear arsenal of their own, and it is reinforcing trauma, fears, and hatred as it has with its Gaza genocide campaign that will take generations to overcome.
Linked by their geographical proximity, the futures of Israel and Iran are unavoidably intertwined. It is in the interests of each country and the United States to stop the war now and to pursue common security diplomacy that can build mutual trust and the foundation for peaceful coexistence.
June 13, 2025