The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament today expressed extreme concern over reports in the Sunday Telegraph that a US-led attack on Iran is ‘inevitable’, if Teheran fails to comply with UN Security Council demands. No evidence has yet been produced to show that Iran’s nuclear power programme is being diverted for a nuclear weapons programme. Iran is entitled under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to the development of nuclear power for peaceful purposes. Iran has also, since 2003, been in full compliance with the Additional Protocols and NPT safeguards agreements.

CND calls on the British government to oppose any moves to attack Iran, and urges the government to persuade the US administration against any such course of action. Further dialogue and discussion, which has the goal of peaceful resolution of the issue, must be pursued.

Jeremy Corbyn MP, Vice-Chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament said,
‘We are in a desperately dangerous situation; on top of the mounting death tolls of Iraq and Afghanistan it would be crazy to launch an attack against Iran. Israel has illegal nuclear weapons; Iran has not breached the NPT. We need to be independent of the obsessions of US foreign policy and refuse to be involved in any way with any attack on Iran.’

CND Chair Kate Hudson said,
‘We are aware that government noises now are the same as those in the run up to the war on Iraq in 2003. We must avoid a rerun of those tragic events. An attack on Iran would not be an end to the issue of Iran’s nuclear programme, it would be the beginning of a further disaster in the region which would massively expand the existing crisis and spread the conflagration that is Iraq into ever wider areas. Our government must draw back from any idea of supporting such a US initiative and must put all its efforts into preventing it.’

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Notes to Editor:

1. For further information and interviews please contact Rick Wayman, CND's Press & Communications Officer, on 0207 7002350 or 07968 420859
2. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is one of Europe’s biggest single-issue peace campaigns, with over 32,000 members in the UK. CND campaigns for the abolition of all nuclear weapons everywhere. www.cnduk.org