Open letter to Kevin Rudd on his comments about Iran and Syria

Dear Hon Kevin Rudd, Minister for Foreign Affairs
What prompted me to write this letter to you are your irresponsible comments in the last few days about issues important for the whole world.

In the last few days you were quoted first supporting the USA measures to isolate Iran and enforce more draconian measures of economical blockade and ban on oil exports.

Then yesterday you were quoted supporting USA and its allies in demanding international intervention in Syria and demanding President Assad to resign.

We would like to condemn your stances on both issues which are designed to initiate new military conflicts in the Middle East.

Let me explain to you the reasons behind our condemnation of your stance.

In the question of Iran, you think that such harsh embargo and sanctions are acceptable because of claims of Iranian military nuclear program. You and your government did not give us any explanation why you and your Western allies are very silent on the Israeli aggressive military nuclear program.

Where Iranian program is so far peaceful according to the latest report by IAEA, the Israeli military nuclear program is alive and running for the last few decades. We, as Australians, need to hear the reasons behind your clear hypocrisy on this issue. And we know that you will tell us that Iran is so different from Israel. And we believe so, too.

Iran so far did not invade, occupy and ethnically cleanse any of its neighboring countries and nations. Israel did all these. It occupies Palestine, parts of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. It ethnically cleansed the indigenous people of Palestine, where the majority now are living as refugees, inside their country or in other countries. I and all my family were among those ethnically cleansed during the 1948 war.

On the question of Syria, we are sure that your comments came as you did not read the latest report of Arab observers sent to Syria a month ago. The observers noticed very clearly that the majority of crimes were conducted by armed militia financed and supported by foreign powers. You chose to follow blindly the stance of USA government, which is one of the foreign powers that are financing and supporting the armed militia’s activities against the Syrian civilians and armed forces.

You were quoted calling on president Assad of Syria to step down and give power to the opposition. We do not know if you are aware about the extreme risk of such move.

But we are very sure that President Assad will not listen to failed politician like you. If you cannot convince your failed leader to step down and hand the power back to you after she failed to manage this country, how would you convince president of independent foreign power to do so?

In this letter we want to convey to you a simple message: not in our name. Your participation of beating the war drums against Syria and Iran would not be supported by the majority of Australians. We also believe that the Australian participation in any future war in the Middle East will be major mistake that will destabilize the whole region, if not the whole world. We watched with deep concern the tensed debate in the UN Security Council meeting about the proposed military intervention in Syria. And we believe that invading Syria or Iran will not be without a lot of blood and very wide destruction.

We thought that Australian government under Labor-Greens should have been totally different (and less regressive) than a government under extreme Liberal-Nationals. Your comments in the last few days gave us deep suspicions about this.

The next election is not too far and we believe that peace-loving Australians will send your government a decisive tough message.

Thanks and I hope that you can find time to give us some convincing answers to our arguments and suspicions.

Yours



Jamal Daoud
Spokesperson, Social Justice Network