ON SUNDAY, Labour leader Keir Starmer caved in to Donald Trump’s demand that the UK join in the illegal murderous war launched jointly by US imperialism and the genocidal Israeli state against Iran.
After the US and Israel launched their missile attacks on Iran on Saturday morning, Starmer claimed the entire operation had been carried out without the knowledge of the UK government and urged the Iranians to ‘return to the negotiating table’.
Starmer of course ignored the fact that this illegal war was started while Iran was involved in negotiating with the US. In fact, the entire ‘negotiations’ had been nothing more than a smokescreen behind which Trump amassed the largest US force to carry out the joint plan with the Zionist regime to attempt to destroy the Iranian government and bring that country under the domination of US imperialism.
The position of Starmer’s government has been to hide behind the curtain of ‘neutrality’ while not daring to challenge the right of Trump and US imperialism and its Zionist ally to wage murderous wars across the region and commit genocide in Gaza.
At every stage Starmer has given the wholehearted support of the UK military to imperialist carnage while sanctimoniously denying any culpability in war crimes and any direct involvement.
On Sunday morning, Labour’s defence secretary John Healey was interviewed by the BBC and repeated that the UK had not taken part in any strikes while rejoicing in the murder of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
All this changed on Sunday night with Starmer unilaterally announcing that the UK had agreed to a US ‘request’ to use British military bases for ‘defensive’ strikes on Iran.
According to the BBC, the US is demanding the use of RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, both beyond the reach of Iranian missiles, to launch strikes on Iran.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Telegraph yesterday, Trump said that he is ‘very disappointed’ that Starmer had previously blocked the US from using the Chagos Island of Diego Garcia to carry out bombings, insisting that it was unlike anything that had ‘happened between our countries before’.
Trump laid into Starmer saying it ‘took far too long’ to change his mind, adding ‘it sounds like he was worried about legality.’
More to the point, Starmer was worried that the UK working class and youth have had enough of imperialist wars and are sickened by the sight of the slaughter and destruction being inflicted on Iran, Palestine and across the region.
Starmer’s Labour government is teetering on the brink of political oblivion but, like the faithful lap dog, cannot resist the demands of Trump and US imperialism to enter into a war with Iran.
The Iranian response to Starmer’s declaration of war was swift.
Within hours of his announcement a drone attacked the RAF base in Cyprus as Iran continued its massive attack on US and hostile bases and US assets across the region along with missile barrages that have penetrated Israel’s ‘iron dome’ defences.
What is clear is that Trump’s and Netanyahu’s belief that they can bomb Iran into submission completely underestimates the determination of the Iranian government and people to resist and carry out their right to retaliation against unprovoked attacks that are engulfing the entire region and world in a war to rescue capitalism from economic collapse.
The enemy of the working class in the UK, US, Europe and across the world is not the Iranian people but a capitalist system that in its death agony is resorting to wars in an attempt to regain mastery over the world and its resources for exploitation.
The working class and people of the world have had enough of imperialist wars and the time has come to force their trade unions to mobilise in general strikes to bring down their capitalist governments, replacing them with workers governments and socialism.
The burning issue is to build up the WRP and Young Socialists in Britain and sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International in every country to provide the leadership required to put capitalism out of its death agony with the victory of the world socialist revolution.