Israeli–American Attack on Iran

Israeli–American Attack on Iran
World Federation of Scientific Workers Statement

On Saturday, February 28, 2026, the armed forces of the State of Israel and the United States of America attacked Iran, in blatant violation of international law and at a time when negotiations were underway to reach an agreement with this country on its nuclear programme. The indiscriminate strikes on Tehran and across Iranian territory represent a new step in the militaristic spiral that has devastated the entire Middle East for decades.

The argument of preventive strikes or self-defence is inadmissible. Equally unacceptable is the claim by both the United States of America and the State of Israel to reshape the Middle East as they see fit, against a backdrop of seeking to subjugate its peoples and seize control of their resources, primarily gas and oil.

Indeed, such an aggression, in the conditions under which it occurred and with the scale it assumed from the very first days, forms part of an imperialist continuum aimed at maintaining strategic and economic spheres of influence in disregard of the sovereignty of peoples and states, fuelling continuous cycles of violence and permanent risks of wider conflagration, for the sole benefit of the aggressors and their military-industrial complexes. This extends the list of imperialist wars and direct interventions in Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Chile, and the former Yugoslavia during the second half of the twentieth century, and more recently in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Venezuela.

Considering the chaos into which the entire Middle East has been plunged following yet another premeditated aggression since the beginning of 2026 – a year that has already witnessed the capture of a sitting head of state, namely that of Venezuela – aligned with the powerful interests controlling the administration of the world’s leading nuclear power, and carried out with the participation of the Israeli army, the World Federation of Scientific Workers strongly condemns the use of brute force to resolve international conflicts of whatever nature. It reaffirms the solidarity of all the scientists it represents with the peoples of the region, foremost among them the people of Palestine, against war, occupation, and colonisation. It calls for an immediate ceasefire, respect for international law, and the opening of genuine diplomatic processes within the framework of the United Nations system, whose political and institutional foundations are now under threat.

While in no way supporting the Iranian theocratic and authoritarian regime – successor to the pro-Western dictatorship of the Shah, itself installed in 1953 by the United States of America – that has weighed upon the Iranian people since 1979, the Federation considers itself in solidarity with that same people in their aspiration for freedom, social justice, and democracy. For the Federation, as for the scientific organisations it brings together, bombs will be no more liberating today than they were yesterday. It is indeed for the Iranian people, and for them alone, to establish democracy in their country, not for aggressive external forces that sow human, ecological, and economic devastation wherever they operate, whether in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, or Asia.

For us as scientists, and for any human society aspiring to freedom, peace, and democracy, collective security can never rest on the law of the strongest or on armed interventions, but rather on the respect of international law as defined by the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as on the pursuit of diplomatic solutions to conflicts between nations.

In the face of escalating armed conflicts, the WFSW recalls that humanity must confront the challenge of climate change, which poses an existential threat to future generations. As proposed by the United Nations in its Sustainable Development Goals, priority must be given to action and to the development of knowledge for peace, cooperation, and the reduction of inequalities.

Lisbon, Paris, Rabat, 4 March 2026.

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Graphic composition: OTC, Portugal
Portuguese version: https://otc.pt/wp/2026/03/18/ataque-israelo-americano-ao-irao/

Pdf document (EN – FR) : FMTS-WFSW_Israeli-US Attack on Iran_260304