On Saturday 21st June 2025, the USA bombed three of Iran’s nuclear sites in Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan, joining Israel’s war of aggression which has killed over 600 Iranians so far. This action marks a serious violation of international law by launching an attack on a sovereign state – escalating the risk of a broader war with devastating consequences for human health and safety. It is also a profound betrayal of global efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation.
The sole result of the bombing is a reckless increase in risk of large scale, militarised violence on top the ongoing Gaza genocide – the worst militarised violence we have witnessed in decades, in which well over 56,000 Palestinians have been killed in the last 19 months – a genocide fueled by US and UK weapons and political support.
These strikes on Iran are not just acts of war, but part of a broader project to clear land, displace populations, and entrench geopolitical control over the region’s people and resources. Since October 2023, Israel’s acts of war have already spilled into Lebanon, Yemen, Syria – and again Iran.
Opposition to these illegal acts of war should not be understood as support for the current repressive Iranian state. We stand with civil society groups in Iran, who should have the right to oppose their government without the fear of being killed in bombings by international actors. Recent history is littered with disastrous US attempts at ‘regime change’ that have both perpetrated and advanced extreme violence while causing chaos and instability.
We reject the false logic that nuclear threats can be countered by military strikes. This paradox – war to prevent nuclear war – is as illogical as it is deadly. Rather than curbing nuclear threats, the strikes we witnessed in the past week only heighten the risk of uncontrollable escalation.
The recent aggression must be understood within the broader context of hypocrisy by nuclear-armed states. The USA and Israel possess nuclear arsenals. Iran does not. Yet it is Iran that is bombed under the pretense of preventing proliferation. This makes a mockery of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to which the USA remains a signatory. Despite its commitments under the NPT, the USA continues to expand and modernise its nuclear capabilities.
Even more damning is that, prior to the attacks, a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concluded that Iran had “no credible indications of an ongoing, undeclared structured nuclear programme”, and the USA’s own Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, assessed that Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons.
As a movement of people campaigning for health justice, we must speak out against war and physical attacks on nuclear facilities not only because of their direct violence, but because of the lasting damage they inflict on health systems and environmental safety.
The International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has made clear that strikes on nuclear facilities are explicitly banned under international law. They endanger public health on a massive scale, risking catastrophic radioactive contamination, and threatening human life and the environment. The impacts of strikes on nuclear facilities, and subsequent radiation exposure – cancer, water and soil contamination – are irreversible.
In the case of a state developing nuclear weapons, diplomacy, not military action, remains the only viable path forward. This has been outlined clearly by nuclear disarmament campaigners, and most recently by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN):
“Military action is not a viable or long-term solution to prevent nuclear proliferation. International treaties such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which have provisions for verifiable nuclear disarmament and non-diversion of nuclear material for weapons, are essential and sustainable tools to prevent nuclear proliferation. Israel, the US and Iran should join the TPNW without delay. For Israel and the US, the Treaty allows for nuclear-armed states to join and then verifiably dismantle their nuclear weapons within an initial period of 10 years. For Iran, it requires all states to uphold their current level of nuclear safeguards.
All countries should also reject any logistical support for illegal attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, including denying permission for US B-2 or B-52 bombers attacking Iran to transit or refuel in their countries.”
The UK government has shamefully continued to lend their support to both the USA and Israel – with the Foreign Secretary refusing to denounce the attacks, and Prime Minister Keir starmer backing them. Despite announcements of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, the actions of the USA have set a dangerous precedent – normalising justification of military attacks on sovereign states as actions to prevent nuclear proliferation, and Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza continues.
Just two days ago, despite longstanding resistance to the presence of US nuclear weapons on UK soil, Keir Starmer confirmed plans to purchase US fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear warheads, which will likely be stored at RAF bases.
At this moment, we must resist our government’s attempts to expand its nuclear arsenal, and all attempts to manufacture public consent for militarisation for so called security. The way to achieve true security is by divesting from war and weapons, and investing meaningfully in tenets of human security: health, housing, education, and climate commitments to ensure a future for people and the planet. We continue to call on the UK government to:
- End all arms sales and all military and diplomatic support for Israel, and introduce sanctions on Israel to meaningfully bring about an end to the genocide.
- Sign on to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and commit to nuclear disarmament.
