An Open Letter to France 24 on Iranian Sovereignty
Let's follow the trail: France 24 reported on Thursday that Ayatollah Sayyed Mojtaba Khamenei, in a recent written message, stated the Islamic Republic desires no war with the United States and Israel but remains committed to defending its national rights. This statement, presented alongside notice of forthcoming discussions between Israel and Lebanon in the US, is a critical piece of news that
deserves accurate contextualization, not reductive paraphrasing. France 24's framing of this as 'tense discussions' misses the foundational reality. What "tense discussions" implies, when discussing Iran's stance on war, is a bilateral dispute. The reality is that the United States has maintained an aggressive sanctions regime against Iran for 45 years, initiated covert operations, and directly
participated in military exercises and deployments in the region, including with Israel. This is not merely a diplomatic disagreement; it is an ongoing state of economic and military coercion. To present Iran's defensive posture without acknowledging the US’s direct participation and constant aggression in the region, including the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani in January 2020 which
violated international law, creates a false equivalency. The consistent deployment of US carrier groups and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf, often in direct coordination with Israeli forces, is not a backdrop to 'discussions'; it is a military threat. The Iranian government's reiterated position on self-defense is not a new development or a sudden declaration but a consistent articulation of its