The Human Shield Movement, today warned President Bush and Tony Blair that any attempt at an illegal ‘Iraq-style’ war against Iran would be met by a massive mobilisation of western Human Shields, the like of which has never been seen. Already over 500 people have now pledged themselves as potential human shields in the event of an imminent invasion of Iran, and that number is climbing every day.

The Human Shield Movement gained global prominence in the 2003 when hundreds of so-called Western civilians of all ages and backgrounds descended on Iraq in an attempt to prevent the invasion. The movement has been out of hibernation since President Bush’s State of the Union in Februrary and have been collecting pledges of people willing to go to Iran should an invasion look imminent.

Organisers are hoping that by organising early they will be able to mount a sizeable army of volunteers willing to try and stop a future destructive folly in the Middle East. The Human Shield Mission to Iraq only had a matter of weeks to organise before the start of ‘Operation Shock and Awe’ and as a result the number of human shields in Baghdad was not great enough to provide an effective deterrent.

President Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil’ State of the Union in address in 2002 was a precursor to the Iraq invasion. In February 2005 his address hinted at his future intentions in Iran. Since then, the election of the radical Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iranian President in July has made the White House even more determined to invade.

In September the US and Britain persuaded the IAEA board to overrule its inspectors, declare Iran in breach of the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and say that Iran's activities could be examined by the UN security council. A Security Council Resolution affirming the breach could pave the way for ‘a legal invasion’. As recent experience has shown, even failure to gain a Resolution might not deter these two countries from waging ‘an illegal invasion’.

In November, the front pages of the British newspapers were filled with the story that Iran was supplying the roadside bombs to Iraqi militants used for killing British soldiers. This coming so soon after the nuclear weapons programme story, suggests that the media are complicit in ‘softened up’ the public for war. There is little coverage for stories like the one in the Guardian highlighting that the fact that the supposedly sophisticated devices used as roadside bombs have been manufactured inside Iraq for many months and do not need to be imported from Iran.

Although travelling to Iran or Syria is seen as a ‘last resort’ the Movement is determined to be more organised this time around. Today, a powerfully-worded warning was sent to the White House, as well as a letter to Downing Street urging Tony Blair to unequivocally distance himself from the President’s warmongering stance. A spokesperson for the movement, Schlomo Stankowic said today;

“Military action against Iran would be based on the principle of ‘anticipatory self defence’ or ‘preventive war’. By allowing the concept that wars can be fought on the basis of what states might do rather than what they have done or are about to do, we shatter the precepts of international law and destabilise the world. It is up to all of us to do everything in our power to save this planet from this dangerously misguided foreign policy. If we had had 10,000 human shields in Iraq before the war, Bush and Blair would have hesitated in their rush to war. Unfortunately in 2003, we had little more than a month to mobilise human shields. This time it will be different. This time we will be prepared.”


For more information contact  humanshieldsiran@hotmail.co.uk

If you would like to pledge yourself as a human shield contact  humanshieldsiran@hotmail.co.uk