IRAN has fiercely condemned the massive Israeli aerial bombing of several cities and the targeted assassinations of military leaders and nuclear scientists on Thursday night, and vowed severe retaliation for the war crimes.
In a defiant statement, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said Israel ‘opened its dirty and bloody hand to a crime’ against Iran, revealing its evil nature more than ever by striking residential centres. ‘The regime must expect severe punishment,’ he said.
Abolfazl Shekarchi, spokesman for Iran’s armed forces, was quoted by Iranian media as saying that Israel will pay a ‘heavy price’ for its attack.
The Israeli strikes killed Hossein Salami, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Mohammad Bagheri, Chief of Staff of the country’s armed forces, Gholamali Rashid, the deputy commander of the Iranian armed forces, and several nuclear scientists, continuing the Israeli policy of murdering the leaders of Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the pro-Assad forces in Syria.
Tehran has warned that Israel and the US will pay a ‘heavy price’ for the attacks, and that this could lead an already fragile region into full-scale war.
In a statement, the Israeli army confirmed that 200 fighter jets struck more than 100 targets across the country, with strikes confirmed in at least eight locations across Iran, including the capital Tehran, Iran’s main uranium enrichment site in Natanz, and a nuclear research centre in Tabrizcks.
The US has been accused of complicity after withdrawing embassy staff and the families of military personnel from the region.
President Donald Trump again re-confirmed his readiness to defend Israel in case of a retaliatory strike by Iran in a statement to Fox News.
‘The president is looking to see, if there is retaliation, CENTCOM (US Central Command) is on high alert, the US will defend itself and Israel if Iran retaliates,’ reported Fox News on X.
Global oil and gas prices have soared due to the threat of a military conflagration in the Middle East and beyond, threatening oil and gas supplies, and has panicked the commodity and financial markets amid a raging world economic and financial crisis and Trump’s destabilising global tariffs and trade war.
Brent crude oil jumped by as much as 13 per cent to more than $78 a barrel and could jump to $110 a barrel, analysts at Capital Economics warned.
Stocks on the FTSE 100 index fell 0.5per cent on Friday morning, with British Airways owner IAG, down as much as 7.1per cent, with EasyJet close behind with a fall of 5.6per cent.
The major worry for markets is that Tehran could choose to block the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route in the Middle East, in the event of a full-blown conflict.
In the UK, domestic tax rises are more than likely after the oil price spike shock, analysts warn.
Gervais Williams of investment manager Premier Miton said Israel’s attack on Iran will increase inflationary pressures and could lead to fewer interest rate cuts by the Bank of England and a rise in taxes by the Chancellor!
Meanwhile, Starmer has refused to condemn the unprovoked act of Israeli terrorism and merely called for ‘restraint’.
To their shame, the TUC leaders remain silent and refuse to condemn the imperialist attack, instead supporting the Labour government and its plans to transform the UK into a war economy, a ‘defence industrial superpower’ according to Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s spending review this week. All to save British capitalism!
Trade union members must demand their leaders oppose imperialist wars and take action against Labour’s support for Israel’s imperialist war to seize Iran’s oil resources. They must force the calling of a general strike to bring down the pro-war Labour government and go forward to establish a Workers’ Government and socialism.
The reality is that capitalism offers only war and barbarism to the masses of the world, and must be consigned to the dustbin of history by the world socialist revolution, led by the International Committee of the Fourth International. There is not a moment to lose!
