International

A group of Dutch citizens of Iranian descent has taken the initiative to set up a petition in order to draw attention to the threat of war against Iran. Under the heading “No war against Iran” they are using a website to solicit signatures against the military threats against Iran coming principally from the US, whose government gives the possibly malevolent aims of the country's nuclear energy programme as its reason for the threat. Iran is working on uranium enrichment, a technology which could enable the production of nuclear weapons and which the US therefore wants to stop Iran from developing. As things stand, the US is attempting to persuade the United Nations Security Council to introduce punitive measures against Iran's nuclear policy.

'Whether it is because or in spite of all of the protests of the past history will decide, but we appear to be in agreement over one thing: the old NATO is disappearing and a new NATO is revealing itself. We are, however, unable to see clearly just what form the warp and weft of the new world-wide security system will take. If we want to avoid a situation in which public and parliament are presented, in the near future, with a fait accompli, we must decide together what sort of regional and global structures of security are desirable."