CAAT condemns the US and Israel’s illegal war on Iran that began on 28th February, which is a flagrant violation of Article 2 of the UN Charter which prohibits the use of force against another state, except in self-defence or following authorisation by a UN Security Council resolution. There was no evidence of an imminent attack by Iran on either the US, Israel, or any other state, that would support a claim that this is a ‘preemptive’ attack. It is an illegal war of aggression, pure and simple.
The attacks were launched, moreover, in the middle of negotiations on the future of Iran’s nuclear programme, supposedly one of the main reasons for the attack, which were apparently making progress, but where the US was clearly negotiating in bad faith.
CAAT likewise condemns Iranian attacks against civilian targets in Israel and the Gulf, and against states not involved in the attacks. International law allows for a defensive military response to armed aggression, but only against military targets. Iran has launched strikes on 27 American military bases, across Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as well as on Israeli military facilities, but also on civilian infrastructure and residential areas.
Already the US-Israeli attack has killed at least 787 Iranians including, most tragically, 165 civilians, mostly schoolgirls, in an attack on Saturday on a girls’ elementary school in Minab. At least 52 people have also been killed in Israel’s attack on Lebanon, and at least 27 have been killed in Israel and the Gulf region in Iran’s retaliatory strikes. The danger of even greater escalation is severe, and could lead to chaos in Iran and across the region. This war can only bring further death and destruction, and will do nothing to bring freedom to the people of Iran, who are now caught between US and Israeli bombs and regime bullets, or peace or stability to any country in the region.
American and Israeli foreign intervention is not about helping the people of Iran, but about gaining further neo-colonial control in the region. Significantly, this is motivated by Israel’s desire to continue its ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestine with even further impunity.
UK involvement and arms supplies
Following the start of the war, our government has once again aligned itself with the deadly violence of American foreign policy. Despite Starmer’s earlier promises that British military bases would not be used by the United States in any escalatory aggression in the region, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper continues to defend the government’s decision to go against its word and allow the US to use British bases for its attacks.
With British military bases in use and British planes “in the sky”, it is hard to believe this is anything other than the UK being pulled back into another American war in the Middle East, no matter how much our government states any British involvement is for so-called “defensive purposes”.
British involvement in these attacks goes beyond allowing the use of its bases by the US. In particular, both US and Israeli forces have used F-35 fighter jets in their strikes on Iran, 15% of which are produced in the UK. Indeed, the F-35 has played a crucial role in the war owing to its stealth capabilities, making it the first line of attack in ‘contested’ air space. The F-35 also played a crucial role in Israel’s previous attack on Iran in June 2025. The F-35 was also used by the US in its illegal attack on Venezuela in January.
Key components for F-35s are produced across England and Scotland, including:
- the rear fuselage by BAE Systems in Samlesbury, Lancashire
- the active interceptor system by BAE Systems in Rochester, Kent
- the targeting lasers by Leonardo in Edinburgh
- the bomb release cables by L3 Harris in Brighton.
In allowing the continued supply of F-35 components to Israel (via the US), despite their use in the genocide in Gaza, the UK government claimed that these supplies could not be stopped without jeopardising the global supply chain for the F-35 programme as a whole, which it claimed was crucial for preserving “peace and security”. But instead of peace and security, we are seeing this aircraft used again and again for illegal aggression and untold death, destruction and instability.
This illegal war of aggression, with all its devastating consequences, should call into question not only the UK’s long-standing subservience to US foreign policy and support for military aggression, but also its deep military and military-industrial dependence on, and intertwining with the United States and its arms industry. The US’s overwhelmingly dominant military machine, far from being a guarantee of global peace and international law, is – along with Russia, Israel, the UAE, and many others – one of its primary destroyers.
CAAT calls upon the UK government to:
- Reverse its decision to allow the US to use UK military bases to attack Iran, issue a clear condemnation of the US-Israeli war as a violation of international law, and ensure that the UK plays no part in the war going forward.
- Withdraw from the F-35 programme, immediately halting all F-35 component supplies to the US and Israel
- Suspend all arms supplies to the US that can be used for illegal military action against Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, or other countries that have been threatened militarily by the US
- Work to reduce UK arms imports from the US, and end UK military and arms industry dependence on the US, pursuing a foreign and defence policy based on collective security, human rights and respect for international law.
