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CODE PINK´s statement “Don’t Attend Trump’s Mideast Peace Ministerial”

CODE PINK´s statement “Don’t Attend Trump’s Mideast Peace Ministerial in Warsaw, Poland“
“Don’t Attend Trump’s Mideast Peace Ministerial in Warsaw, Poland
Dear Representatives of the European Union,
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently announced that the United States and Poland will jointly host a ministerial meeting on the Middle East in Warsaw on February 13-14. This meeting aims to build a broad coalition against Iran. We urge you NOT to attend the meeting.
Secretary Pompeo says the summit will bring together representatives from 70 countries from Asia, Africa, the Western Hemisphere, Europe and the Middle East. While the meeting will address issues of peace, stability, freedom and security, a major part of the agenda is, according to Secretary Pompeo, to make sure “that Iran is not a destabilizing force.” This meeting is part of the US campaign against Iran that includes withdrawing from the Iran nuclear agreement and re-imposing sanctions that the U.S. had lifted as part of the deal.
A major step forward for peace and security in the Middle East was precisely the Iran nuclear agreement, which was negotiated by the US, Iran, France, the UK, Germany, Russia and China, and was approved by the European Union and the UN Security Council. The other signatories have remained in the agreement and have been looking for ways to circumvent US sanctions on Iran. It is the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the long-negotiated agreement and its increased hostility towards Iran that have added to the instability of the region and are threatening to unleash another devastating war in the Middle East.
The US is fanning the flames of conflict.
Since European countries are still a party to the Iran nuclear agreement and want to improve relations with Iran, it would not make sense for Europe to participate in a conference hostile to Iran. Your non-participation would send a critical message to other countries to follow your lead.
We urge all nations to boycott this conference and instead pressure the US administration to rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement and to work with Iran, as well as all other nations in the region, to stop terrorism and end wars, including the catastrophic war in Yemen.”
Signed:
(Organizations for identification only)
Sign here:

Disarmament, Peace and Development Vol: 27

Edited by: Reiner Braun (International Peace Bureau, Germany), Colin Archer (International Peace Bureau, UK), Ingeborg Breines (International Peace Bureau, Norway), Manas Chatterji (Binghamton University – State University of New York, USA), Amela Skiljan (International Peace Bureau, Germany)

December 2018, 188 pp

Series: Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development

Continue reading “Disarmament, Peace and Development Vol: 27”

IPB Statement – INF Treaty

IPB calls for: Defending the INF Treaty

President Trump’s announcement that he plans to withdraw the United States from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty marks a dangerous escalation on the path to creating a 21st century U.S.-Russian Cold War. It again demonstrates that ignorance, the will and need to dominate others and the news cycle, and nuclear weapons make an extremely dangerous cocktail for renewed and extremely dangerous arms racing that endangers human survival.

Continue reading “IPB Statement – INF Treaty”

Denny Tamaki won the gubernatorial elections in Okinawa, Japan

Denny Tamaki won the gubernatorial elections on the 30th of September 2018 in Okinawa. Tamaki, who was previously the secretary general of the Liberal Party, is a candidate that opposes the relocation of a U.S. military base on this Japanese island and opposes the construction of the new base at Henoko. The previous Governor Takeshi Onaga unfortunately passed away earlier this summer. Onaga´s policies included a strong position against the presence of U.S. bases in Okinawa. This island, which is located in one of the most southern prefectures, comprises less than one per cent of Japan´s landmass, but accommodates more than two thirds of the U.S. bases in Japan. Continue reading “Denny Tamaki won the gubernatorial elections in Okinawa, Japan”

Seán MacBride Peace Prize 2018

The International Peace Bureau awards the Seán MacBride Peace Prize every year to a person, or organisation, or movement in recognition of its outstanding work for peace, disarmament, human rights.

This year the IPB Board has chosen the following three winners of the prize:

AHDR (Association For Historical Dialogue and Research) and Home for Cooperation

Helena Maleno

Douglas Roche
 Continue reading “Seán MacBride Peace Prize 2018”

David McReynolds has left us

by Colin Archer

Older members of the IPB family will have vivid memories of David McReynolds, who died on Aug.17th in New York City at the age of 88. David was a committed pacifist and socialist, as well as an accomplished photographer. He was on the War Resisters League staff from 1960 to 1999 and was chair of the War Resisters’ International. He was also a long time member of the US Socialist Party, running for President of the USA in 1980 and 2000 — the first openly gay candidate for President — and for the U.S. Senate from New York in 2004 on the Green Party ticket. His very moving photos reveal (among much else) a lifelong engagement with campaigns against war and oppression; and in favour of disarmament and human rights. He traveled extensively, many times to war-torn countries, once getting arrested in Red Square during an anti-nuclear protest in 1978. David was appointed a consultant to the IPB in the 1990s, and was a reliable source of support in all kinds of ways over the years. Many colleagues have expressed great sadness at his passing. David was an outstanding activist who was both resolute and gentle, never afraid to take a bold stand. He was a radical political thinker and writer, a movement organiser, and especially in his later years, a global networker. His family and friends will be planning a memorial service in the weeks to come. See also New York Times obituary.