Tag Archives: Iran

No war with Iran: No war without parliament

By: AWPR | Posted in: Blog, Foreign affairs, News, Trump, war powers reform | 27 June, 2019 | 6:24 pm

Our correspondence with the Prime Minister regarding Iran, 2019

Letter to the Prime Minister

27 June 2019

Dear Mr Morrison

I write on behalf of Australians for War Powers Reform, an organisation dedicated to achieving Parliamentary involvement in any decision Australia might make to deploy members of the Australian Defence Force into international armed conflict. The purpose of this letter is to convey our concern about the prospect of military action against Iran.

Australia has no quarrel with the government of Iran, which since 2015 has fully observed the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as verified …

Eight ways you’re wrong about the Iranian nuclear program

By: AWPR | Posted in: Blog | 22 February, 2014 | 6:13 pm

The January-February issue of the prestigious US journal The National Interest carries an article by

Yousaf Butt, a nuclear physicist who serves as a scientific consultant for the Federation of American Scientists, entitled Eight Ways You’re Wrong About Iran’s Nuclear Program.

The eight “memes” rebutted by Butt are:

  • “If the world powers fail to reach a deal with Tehran the alternative is bombing.”
  • “Sanctions forced Iran to the table and extracted concessions from Iran.”

    • 3  “Iran has dragged out negotiations unnecessarily – the West sees the nuclear issue as an urgent matter and desperately wants to resolve it …

    Will Australia erode or build trust with Iran?

    By: AWPR | Posted in: Blog | 5 August, 2013 | 5:07 pm

    That is the question posed by our NAJ Taylor in the 15 July edition of The Guardian.

    Noting that Australia has since 2008 imposed autonomous sanctions on Iran since 2008, in addition to the raft of sanctions that have been set by the UN Security Council since 2006, he writes:

    Australian sanctions against Iran must … be considered as an extreme measure to be taken only if efforts in support of regional as well as Iranian denuclearisation come to fail, or if the imminence of Iranian nuclear weapons acquisition demands an immediate response by the Australian government over and above …

    Sanctions do more harm than good

    By: AWPR | Posted in: Blog | 11 January, 2013 | 3:51 pm

     

    Article by CIWI Member Ramesh Thakur, published in

    The Australian

    January 4, 2012

    (Access published article here)

    SANCTIONS became popular as a bridge between diplomacy and force for ensuring compliance with UN demands, yet their track record in ensuring compliance is pitiful. They inflict pain on citizens while imposing questionable costs on leaders.

    Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan acknowledged that “humanitarian and human rights policy goals cannot easily be reconciled with those of a sanctions regime”. Sanctions all too often are a poor alibi for, not a sound supplement to, a good foreign policy. They are ineffective, counterproductive, …

    Australia strengthening sanctions against Iran

    By: AWPR | Posted in: Blog | 11 January, 2013 | 3:39 pm

    Comment by Paul Barratt

    It is ironic that, as announced in this morning’s edition of The Age (see here), the world champion payer of kick-backs to Saddam Hussein now has “key responsibility” for enforcing sanctions against Iran – the “crippling sanctions” which Hillary Clinton in particular has been so keen to see from the moment she became Secretary of State.

    This development causes me considerable sadness because during the early years of the Islamic Revolution and into the 1980s I was involved as Deputy Secretary of the Department of Trade, reporting to a very strong Minister (and Deputy Prime …