Israel, the US’s rogue proxy in the Middle East with its own agenda, initiated the current war by attacking Iran with the declared aim of physically preventing it acquiring the nuclear bomb.
According to Netanyahu, Iran’s possession of the nuclear bomb would present an existential threat to the state of Israel. The suggestion is that, if Iran had the bomb, it would use it to annihilate Israel. This is just propaganda as Iran wants the bomb for the same reason as the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India and Pakistan have it — as a deterrent against being attacked. If Iran did have the bomb it would be very foolish of it to use it against Israel as Israel itself is a nuclear state.
The real reason for the war — and why the United States and the West are behind Israel — is to maintain the balance of power in the Middle East. In relations between capitalist states ‘might is right’ and Iran’s possession of nuclear weapons would increase its ‘might’ and so shift the balance in its favor. It’s this that the Western states, who currently dominate the area because it is the source of much of the oil and gas they need to power their production, wish to prevent, ideally by diplomacy but Israel has forced their hand.
Who controls the oil, and the trade routes and pipelines to get it out, has been the stake in all the many wars in the Middle East since the end of the last World War. On the surface the issue appears to be the existence of the state of Israel, established in 1948 as a ‘Jewish homeland’ on land that been the home for generations of non-Jews. This, in itself, was bound to create resentment but it might have worked had not the United States decided to build up Israel’s military might as its proxy on the ground in the region to defend its economic interests there.
Which capitalist states — the West or Iran — control the economic resources of the region is of no concern to the workers living there. The civilians on both sides are being killed and wounded and buildings and useful infrastructure destroyed for an issue that is only of capitalist concern.
As Socialists we place on record our abhorrence at this latest manifestation of capitalist barbarism. The interest of workers in both Israel and Iran is to join with workers everywhere to bring an end to the war-prone capitalist system and replace it with a world socialist commonwealth where the Earth’s natural and industrial resources will be commonly owned by all humanity.
World Socialist Movement
22 June 2025
https://worldsocialist.org/
