Speech of Chandra Muzaffar, Malaysian Writer and Scholar, and Founder of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST):
Chandra Muzaffar: The title of my presentation is, “Is there still time to prevent the war against Iran from escalating into a global nuclear conflict?” One really doesn’t know whether it will lead to a nuclear conflict. What we do know is that the two aggressors in this conflict, Israel and the United States, are both nuclear powers. They are armed with powerful nuclear weapons. We also know that two other countries which are watching this conflict very carefully are also nuclear powers—Russia and China. So there is this danger, but we don’t want to speculate on this.
What we know for certain is that if we don’t stop the war, immediately things are going to get much worse. There’ll be more deaths, there’ll be more destruction, there’ll be more devastation. And at the same time, political tensions will increase and we would be exposed to this danger of some sort of major conflict erupting.
As far as the global economy is concerned, we know that the five-week war that has been going on is already having a devastating impact on the global economy. Energy prices, prices connected with goods, services, transportation, international trade, commerce, everything will be very badly affected. It will get much worse.
So our call right from the beginning has been to stop the war, to stop the war immediately. And we convey this message especially to Israel and the United States. Why? Because it is Israel and the United States that started this war. Israel wanted this war. The United States gave it full support. And Iran has been retaliating. But the real culprits would be Israel and the United States, as far as this war is concerned. We have to convey to them that the situation is bad. As we just described, politics, tensions, security, the global economy and all the rest of it.
But we also have to convey to them something else, which may not mean anything to the United States and Israel. Let’s remind them that if you attack Israel, if you attack Iran, you’re attacking one of the oldest civilizations in the world. It’s perhaps 6,000, 7,000 years old. It is a rich civilization. It is a civilization that has made a huge contribution to humankind. And if you attack them, it means you’ll be destroying some of those monuments, historical sites, which have been there for thousands of years. And that would be a shame, an utter shame, apart from deaths, destruction and all the rest of it.
What can we do? I think we should all accelerate our efforts to stop the war. More people should speak up. And by this, I mean civil society and other groups. But since JUST is a civil society, we think more civil society groups must speak up all over the world. That’s very, very important. They should take a position, they should speak up. And campaign, network, mobilize, do all those things that civil society groups do in order to bring about a change, to stop a war in this instance. We should do that.
At the same time, something else that can be done. In terms of the United States of America, which is in some ways the principal culprit, I think it is important for members of parliament, from parliaments all over the world, all the parliaments that are functioning in the world, they should send messages to the members of the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Senate; direct messages to them, from all the members of parliament all over the world, north, south, east, west, send to the U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate, telling them, stop the war. Because they are in a position to stop the war, the U.S. Congress and the Senate are in a position to do this. So that message has to be conveyed, it’s very, very important. It should be done on a massive scale, widely publicized, so that the impact will be felt by everyone. And it may carry some weight.
At the same time, we would like to propose that the heads of the military forces in different parts of the world, again, north, south, east, west, everywhere, they should send this message to the military of the United States of America and Israel. Stop the aggression, stop the war. And at the same time, we should also send this message to Iran. You don’t have to retaliate. If they’re going to stop, you don’t have to retaliate. And then the whole thing will come to an end, the war will come to an end.
That’s the only avenue that I see available. I can’t see countries doing other things at the moment, but this is what we in civil society can do, what members of parliament can do, what the military chiefs can do. This is something that we have to think about very seriously. And we should remember that if we don’t do this, we could actually get into a Third World War. The danger is there. Because of the actors involved, because of the situation, the tension involved, because of the impact upon global trade related to everything that is happening, but especially what is happening vis-a-vis the Strait of Hormuz; a very, very important waterway.
And what I fear is that some country or group of countries, some elements may decide, well, since we can’t get our oil and the price of goods and services are all going up as a result of what is happening, and especially in relation to the Strait of Hormuz, what we’ll do is we’ll go and try to take over the Strait of Hormuz. A military operation, an attack on Iran, which would be an utter shame. The United States is perhaps even thinking about this at the moment.
So this is the danger. And this is why I think the world has to stand up. It’s not enough just to make statements here and there, but really mobilize; a massive, wholesale, worldwide mobilization. This is one war that has to be stopped. This is one conflict that has to be brought to an end immediately for the sake of the future of humankind. Thank you.
