CND condemns Trump’s latest threats of military aggression against Iran. Any military attacks on Iran could trigger a catastrophic war across the Middle East, drawing in other gulf states hosting US military bases as well as nuclear-armed Israel.
The US has deployed a massive military force to the region, including the nuclear-powered USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, which supports aircraft including F-35 fighter jets. With eight permanent US military bases in the Middle East, the US has deployed fighter jets to Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, destroyers and combat ships to Khalifa Bin Salman Port in Bahrain and new air defences are in position at the Al Udeid base in Qatar.
Britain has also moved four Typhoon jets to the Al Udeid base and there are reports that the nuclear-powered attack submarine, HMS Anson, might join the deployment.
Referring to a huge military build-up in the region, Trump has stated ‘Like with Venezuela, it is, ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary.”
Having spent the last month threatening Iran with military attacks over the protests that erupted in the country in response to the worsening economic impact of intensified sanctions on the country, Trump has now shifted the focus to Iran’s nuclear programme – arguing that Iran has to engage in talks.
However, back in June 2025, whilst talks were taking place between the US and Iran, Israel launched illegal military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. These attacks were widely condemned, including by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Trump then ordered US illegal military strikes, using B2 stealth bombers to drop 30,000 lb ‘bunker buster’ bombs on Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities.
Iran retaliated with missiles attacks on Israel and strikes to Al Udeid US base in Qatar.
Trump’s failure to engage in genuine talks with Iran is part of a long track record of wrecking diplomatic efforts to resolve tensions. In 2018 Trump trashed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), set up to facilitate the process of ensuring Iran complies fully with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in exchange for the US lifting the crippling sanctions it has imposed on Iran for decades. The intensification of sanctions against Iran and Trump’s illegal bombing of the country has shown that he had no interest in securing a peaceful resolution. Instead, it is clear that Trump is wanting to seek regime change through brutal military threats and economic coercion.
It is also the height of nuclear hypocrisy, that nuclear-armed Israel – which is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and refuses any inspections of its nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency – is not under any pressure to disarm its nuclear weapons.
The consequences of a US-led war on Iran would be absolutely catastrophic. We all remember the horror of the Iraq war, a country half the size of Iran, in which over half a million people were killed and millions displaced.
We need a nuclear weapons-free Middle East, but this can only be secured through diplomacy, not military attacks.
These threats to Iran must be stopped. Both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have stated they will not give permission for their airspace to be used by the US in an attack on Iran.
CND calls on the British government to rule out any military involvement in an attack on Iran and to refuse permission for the US to use the joint US/UK Diego Garcia base on the Chagos Islands.