By Kamran Nayeri, June 22, 2025
Author's note: What follows is a free translation of an essay I wrote and sent for the online socialist journal Critique of Political Economy (نقد اقتصاد سیاسی) in Iran on June 19. Because of the ongoing Israeli and U.S. attacks, Internet service has been compromised, and the work of an online journal has been delayed. Therefore, this translation appears before the publication of the original Farsi version. Writing about a highly dynamic series of events, such as this war, is a challenging task. Thus, I appeal to the reader to focus on the main line of my argument and forgive any details that may seem less important at this time. Although I anticipated Trump's decision to attack Iran's nuclear sites, it happened yesterday, a significant event as it brings the U.S. into direct war with the Islamic Republic, which U.S. administrations had avoided since 1979. Clearly, Trump's action has not ended the conflict but elevated it, and it is likely to lead to the Islamic Republic's decision to produce nuclear weapons as a deterrent. KN.
* * *
A bloody war has broken
out between the Zionist colonial-settler State and the Islamic Republic. On
Friday, June 13, about 100 fighter jets targeted parts of Iran's nuclear
program, including the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, some missile
production sites, and residential neighborhoods in Tehran, and assassinating
several commanders of the Guard of the Islamic Revolution (commonly
mistranslated as "Revolutionary Guards"), senior politicians and
nuclear scientists were assassinated.
Israeli Prime Minister
Netanyahu has declared that he will continue this war "for as long as
necessary" to destroy the Islamic Republic's nuclear capabilities. This is
a vague and unattainable goal. Israel does not have the means to destroy the
Fordow facility, which is deep underground. As a result, Donald Trump has
announced that he will enter the U.S. into this war by using the 30,000-pound
"bunker buster" bomb that only B2 bombers can deploy. Trump has also
called for the Islamic Republic's "unconditional surrender."
Thus, a war that started
under the pretext of preventing the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear
weapons has turned into a war to overthrow that regime by U.S. imperialism and
the Zionist regime in just a few days. Even though a majority of the American
public opposes a U.S. war with Iran, and even part of the coalition that
brought Trump to power opposes it, the Democratic Party leaders in Congress
seem to support it, as they have not mentioned the constitutional requirement
that gives only Congress the power to declare war.
Thus, the Middle
East is facing a long-anticipated war that risks spreading to the region and
threatening the region with nuclear contamination.
There is no doubt that
Israel's preparations for an invasion of Iran and Donald Trump’s negotiations
with the Islamic Republic were a political game to surprise the Iranian regime.
The Times of Israel confirmed this fact on the same day Israel attacked
Iran (Berman, June 13, 2025).
The Origin of the War
The Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
dictatorship installed by the August 1953 CIA/MI6 coup d’état was overthrown
through a year-long mobilization of millions of Iranians, general strikes
against it cumulating in the February 1979 insurrection. The Shah's regime and
the Israeli state, also created with significant interventions by Britain and
the United States, were the bastions of Western imperialism against the Arab
revolution and the influence of the Soviet Union in the Middle East. The 1979
revolution dissolved the Cold War military alliance of CENTO. It destroyed the
major power in the Middle East that supported the Zionist colonial Settler
regime in Palestine and the apartheid regime in South Africa. Western
imperialism lost a powerful ally in the Middle East.
Trusted by the people due
to his irreconcilable opposition to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Ayatollah Khomeini
was able to establish a provisional government. At the same time, he organized
the Revolutionary Council, whose members he chose and dominated by his clerical
supporters, to lay the foundations for an Islamic government in Iran. In his
treatise, Velayat-e Faqih (The Rule of Islamic Jurisprudence) in the early
1970s, Ayatollah Khomeini argued that Muslims everywhere lived under
non-Islamic governments and in the absence of Imam Mahdi, the final Twelfth
Imam in Twelver Shia Islam, who is believed to be in occultation (hidden) and
will reappear someday, a learned ayatollah a group of such ayatollahs can and
must form an Islamic government so that Islamic laws can be implemented. His
goal was to achieve the political unity of all Shiites in the Middle East. The
Islamic Republic in Iran was established according to this view, and it became
the basis of its foreign policy towards Israel, Palestine, the governments in
the region, and the United States.
From the first day after
the February 1979 insurrection that toppled Shah's regime, new Islamic
institutions and organizations, especially the Guards Corps of the Islamic
Revolution (Guards), the Islamic Revolution Committees, and later the Basij of
the Dispossessed as a paramilitary organization attached to the Guards formed a
vast armed force to protect the Islamic regime. At the same time, the Islamic
Regime dissolved or destroyed all grassroots and democratic movements and
independent political parties. Thus, an expansionist Islamic capitalist state
was formed in Iran by repression of the Iranians and in conflict with regional
and world powers.
On November 4, 1979,
Students Following the Imam's Line occupied the U.S. embassy and held 55 of its
employee’s hostage for 444 days. Thus, the first set of sanctions against Iran
was imposed by the United States. Among these sanctions was the prohibition on
the sale of arms to Iran, which effectively eroded its air force, which the
Shah had built up by purchasing F-4 fighter jets from the United States, along
with training Iranian air force pilots in the United States. Iran was
dependent on the U.S. government and companies for the maintenance and repair
of its air force.
With Saddam Hussein's
invasion of Iran and the eight-year war that ensued, the Islamic Republic
prioritized the development of a domestic arms industry. Military commentators
agree that its drone and missile industries are at the highest level in the Middle
East. The experience of eight years of war with Iraq and then cooperation with
Islamic military groups in other countries of the Middle East has created a
vast and experienced military cadre for the Islamic Republic.
In September 2011, the
Bushehr nuclear reactor, designed by the Germans but built by the Russians, was
put into operation. The Islamic Republic began a nuclear enrichment program for
nuclear reactor fuel and medical uses.
Iran's nuclear program
began in the 1950s after the overthrow of the nationalist government of
Mohammad Mossadegh by the CIA and the British MI6 because Mossadegh had
nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company on March 15, 1951.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's
nuclear program was part of Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace"
program. This program was expanded in the 1970s with plans to install nuclear
reactors, but the 1979 revolution disrupted these plans.
The Islamic Republic
revived the plan to build a nuclear power plant in Bushehr during the Iran-Iraq
War. In 1995, Clinton imposed new sanctions on Iran's nuclear program in
response to the Islamic Republic's support for anti-U.S. and anti-Israel
Islamic groups, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic
Jihad in Gaza Strip. Clinton banned U.S. investment in the energy sectors and
trade and investment in Iran.
Successive U.S.
cabinets have imposed additional sanctions on Iran.
Colonialism, Imperialism,
and the Middle East
The U.S. policy toward
Iran and the Middle East is a continuation of the British policy, which
controlled a significant part of the Middle East, along with French
imperialism, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War
I.
The League of Nations,
formed by four Allied countries after World War I—Britain, France, Italy, and
Japan (the United States did not participate) —gave Britain the mandate for
Palestine. In 1917, the British laid the groundwork for the creation of Israel
in Palestine through the Balfour Declaration. In a letter from British
Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, who was a Zionist, he
promised to create a "state for the Jewish people" in Palestine. The
Rothschilds, who were a Jewish banking and finance family, were considered the
richest in the world in the late 19th century.
At that time, Jews were a
small minority in Palestine.
Zionism as a European
Colonial-Settler Ideology
The ideology of Zionism
emerged in Central and Eastern Europe as a colonial-settler ideology prevalent
in 19th-century Europe in response to waves of antisemitism there. Progressive
Jews, of course, were looking for another way to overcome antisemitism. In the
mid-19th century, the Young Hegelians raised and discussed the problem of
antisemitism. Bruno Bauer in his book The Jewish Question (1843), argued
that Jews could only achieve emancipation by abandoning their religious
consciousness through the establishment of a secular state. Karl Marx, in "On
the Jewish Question" (1843), criticized Bauer's assumption that a
secular state solves the problem of religion. Marx pointed to the pervasiveness
of religion in the United States, which, unlike Prussia, had a secular state.
For Marx, Bauer's mistake was that he did not distinguish between political
emancipation and human emancipation. Political emancipation is compatible with
holding religious views, which can lead to religious bias. As a result, Marx
argued that the liberation of the Jews (and others) from the bondage of
religious thought lies in the complete emancipation of humanity, which would
ensure the absence of the need for any religion. Marx, however,
acknowledged that human emancipation is impossible "within the framework
of the "hitherto existing world order."
The revolutionary
socialist movement adhered to Marx's view on religion and antisemitism. The
relationship between the Bolshevik Party and the "General Jewish Workers'
Alliance" (the Bund) serves as an example. The Jewish workers in
Lithuania, Poland, and Russia formed the Bund in 1897. The Bolshevik policy of
staunchly opposing antisemitism and fighting for a socialist revolution
resulted in the revolutionary wing of the Bund splitting and joining the
Communist Party. In 1918, the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree
condemning all forms of antisemitism and calling on workers and peasants to
fight against it.
After Lenin died in 1924,
Stalin, who was organizing a bureaucratic counterrevolution, occasionally
resorted to antisemitism as his main rival, Leon Trotsky, came from a Ukrainian
Jewish family. In the period that Stalin sought an alliance with Hitler,
Stalin again used antisemitism. From late 1944 onwards, Stalin pursued a policy
of supporting Zionism.
In this way, Israel was
created with the support of the imperialists and Stalinists. The Stalinist
parties continued to support Israel.
Israel as a Colonial
Settler State
Despite the Zionist
propaganda that tried to justify the occupation of Palestine based on myths of
the return of the Jews to The Promised Land, the Zionist Movement initially
had other places for colonization. For example, in
1903, at the Sixth Zionist Congress, Theodor Herzl, "The Father of Modern Zionism,"
proposed Uganda
as the location of the Jewish state. However, after the
First World War (WWI) and the division of the Middle East and North Africa
between British and French imperialism, Palestine became part of the British
Mandate from 1931 to 1948. Balfour
Declaration was initially a promise made in a letter from Arthur James
Balfour, Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, to Lord Walter Rothschild,
a Zionist tycoon, on November 2, 1917. The Rothschild banking and finance
family was considered the wealthiest in nineteenth-century Europe.
Subsequently, Zionists
began to migrate to Palestine and acquire land through the purchase and use of
force, including terrorism. For example, Irgun, a Zionist paramilitary
terrorist force, was headed by young Menachem Begin, who later became the
prime minister of Israel.
On November 29, 1947, the
United Nations, which was dominated by the Allied powers, voted to
divide Palestine into two independent states, one Palestinian and the other
Jewish. According to this plan, Jerusalem was declared an international city.
The plan was implemented on October 1, 1948, which the Zionists celebrate as
"Independence Day." However, the Palestinians and the Arab regimes
saw the partition of Palestine as another example of Western imperialism's
interference in their land and opposed it. At that time, there were
approximately 1,300,000 Palestinian Arabs and 600,000 Jews (some of whom were
Palestinian Jews who thus became citizens of Israel) living in Palestine.
Thus, the Zionist
movement and its imperialist supporters have created a Frankenstein in the
Promised Land: a reliable military base of Western imperialism located in the
heart of the Middle East and North Africa.
According to the Federation of American Scientists, Israel began a push to
acquire nuclear weapons immediately right after it was established. The search
for uranium began in 1949, and the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission was
established in 1952. On October 3, 1957, France and Israel signed an agreement
to build a 24-megawatt reactor (although the cooling systems and nuclear waste
facilities were designed for a reactor with three times this capacity), all
under the guise of establishing a chemical plant. All this was carried out
secretly outside the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection
regime. In 1968, the CIA published a report on Israel's nuclear
weapons production. Although the United States was aware of Israel's nuclear
ambitions and activities, as a strategic ally in the Middle East, it was
allowed to join the small group of states with nuclear weapons (the Nuclear
Club).
While Israel is a member
of the IAEA, it is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT). This is a significant difference because membership in the IAEA gives
Israel access to certain benefits and services related to nuclear technologies
and fosters international nuclear cooperation. Failure to sign the NPT means
that Israel will not be subject to full inspections by the IAEA. As such,
the Israeli government neither officially denies nor acknowledges the
possession of nuclear weapons. Currently, Israel receives $3.8 billion in
military aid from the United States annually. Although a UN resolution created
Israel, it has never been reprimanded by the United Nations for repeated
violations of international law thanks to the veto power of the United States
in the Security Council. Israel was a staunch supporter of the apartheid regime
in South Africa but has opposed any anti-imperialist and revolutionary movement
in the Middle East and around the world. It has supported the U.S. war in
Indochina but opposed the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979 and is one of
the few countries that voted against the U.S. lifting the embargo at the annual
meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
Thus, the cause of Jews
fleeing anti-Semitism in Europe and the Nazi Holocaust, especially those who
came to Palestine with socialist ideals, has been betrayed by Zionist leaders.
Worse still, many of them have become racist oppressors who serve colonial and
imperialist interests while opposing the Palestinian movement for
self-determination and the Arab revolution.
In contrast, Iran is a
signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The treaty was signed
in 1968 and ratified in 1970 by the Shah's regime. However, due to the
hostility of the United States and Western imperialism after the 1979
revolution, numerous concerns and reports about Iran's compliance with the
safeguards and obligations of the treaty have been raised to oppose Iran's use
of nuclear energy, a right given to other states.
Why Israel and the U.S.
are allowed to have a nuclear program and nuclear bombs, but Iran is not even
allowed to enrich uranium for peaceful means?
Did not the Islamic
Republic sign the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed on July
14, 2015, with the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom,
and the United States) to allow for regular inspection of Iran's nuclear
activities to ensure it is for peaceful means? Why did Israel oppose the
treaty, and Trump tore it apart?
Ten years ago, after the
signing of the JCPOA, I wrote in an article titled "Their milk wins, our
line loses":
"The July 14
agreement between 5+1 and the Islamic Republic reflects the balance of power
between Iran and imperialism, headed by the United States. America's
pyrrhic victory in the Gulf wars and subsequent rise and unraveling of the Arab
Spring has resulted in region-wide instability where extremist Islamic
organizations like Al-Quada and Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) that
routinely use terror have gained ground. Meanwhile, the influence of the
Islamic Republic has increased in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and the Gaza
Strip. The Islamic Republic has been an ascending force in the region
whose interests have coincided with those of the U.S. when Washington invaded
and occupied Afghanistan and Iraq and now that both regimes are engaged in the
fight against ISIS. At the same time, a majority of the Islamic
Republic's regime realizes that their immediate interests in dismantling the
sanctions regime and pursuing economic development, as well as their strategic
regional ambitions, are best served by reaching an understanding with the
United States. Thus, the Iran nuclear agreement is a win-win for American
imperialism and its allies and the clerical capitalist Islamic Republic. However,
it would be a mistake to suppose that the agreement will prevent future wars—conflicts
can arise over implementation, and the balance of power can change in the
future, making Iran vulnerable again. Nor would the
agreement make the Middle East and the world safer from nuclear
"accidents" or nuclear wars (emphasis added, Nayeri, 2015)."
Israel's war against Iran
has now confirmed my argument that the agreement signed ten years ago is no
longer possible due to changing power relations in the region. As Israeli and
American policymakers have repeatedly insisted, the Islamic Republic has never
been as politically weak as it is today. The dictatorship of Bashir al-Assad in
Syria, which was an ally of the Islamic Republic, has been overthrown, and the
current Sunni Syrian regime prefers closer ties with Washington and has stayed
quiet in the Israeli attack on Iran. Armed forces allied with the Islamic
Republic, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, have been weakened,
and their influence in Iraq has diminished. By creating a tyrannical clerical
capitalist regime, oppressing women, religious minorities, oppressed
nationalities, interfering in the private lives of citizens, suppressing any
independent organization, suppressing all forms of protest, attacking,
imprisoning, torturing, and executing its critics and opponents, the Islamic
Republic has been discredited in the eyes of most Iranians and the world public
opinion. Adherence to neoliberal policies and the inability to manage the
economy, according to official accounts, 40 percent of the population lives
below the poverty line. The 1979 revolution made it possible for the
redistribution of income, which elevated the lot of many poorer Iranians, but
this proved temporary, and now deep class divisions and government corruption
are evident everywhere.
The key motivation for
the Islamic Republic's negotiations with the United States has been the lifting
of sanctions to reduce the economic crisis. The regime used uranium enrichment
as a bargaining chip to reduce, if not end, economic sanctions.
Thus, the Islamic
government project undertaken by Ayatollah Khomeini has reached a dead end.
This situation provided
Israel and the United States an opportunity to launch a military attack on Iran
with an eye on the possibility of overthrowing the Islamic Republic. However,
unlike Syria, where an alternative force had been established over the years,
there is no such an alternative existing in Iran.
Furthermore, both Israel
and the United States are in relative decline. As the year and a half of
Israel's genocidal war in Gaza shows, despite killing more than 55,000
Palestinians, injuring nearly 120,000, and displacing the majority of the
inhabitants of Gaza, Israel has not yet been able to win the release of all its
hostages or defeat Hamas. Israel is politically isolated and more isolated in
public opinion than at any time in the past, as its prime minister, Netanyahu,
is wanted by the International Court for war crimes. Zionism has proven a
dead-end as much as political Islam.
U.S. imperialism has been
facing a relative decline, particularly against the rising power of China as a
global power, while it has been challenged by regional powers such as Russia in
Ukraine, Iran in the Middle East, and China in the Pacific region. The second
election of Trump as president demonstrated the increasing polarization within
the political class, as every four years, the newly elected president cancels
many of the policies implemented by his predecessor. This trend is entirely the
opposite of what the U.S. economic ruling class needs.
The Ecocentric Socialist Alternative
The 1979 Revolution was
suppressed and eventually crushed by 1983 through Ayatollah Khomeini's project
of Velayat-e Faqih (rule of Islamic jurisprudence), which aimed to establish
and consolidate the Islamic Republic. At least two generations of Iranians were
demoralized in the process: the generation of the 1979 Revolution and the
generation that was born and grew up after the Islamic Republic came to power.
The former was mainly a victim of despair due to defeat, and the latter has
been a victim of ignorance regarding the reality of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's
dictatorship, the secular nature of the 1979 revolution, and the reasons for
its failure. Out of ignorance about the democratic anti-imperialist goals of
the revolution, this generation holds the revolutionaries responsible for the
creation and crimes of the Islamic Republic even though they were the first
victims of this regime. As a result, some of them have been attracted to the
propaganda of the United States, the remnants of the regime of Mohammad Reza
Pahlavi, and even Israel. These same people have become anti-Arab and
anti-Palestinian, an echo of the Fars nationalism of the Pahlavi monarchy.
However, the 1979
Revolution was a great historical movement for independence, freedom, and
social justice (استقلال، آزادی، عدالت اجتماعی). It was a movement that had the potential to create the
broadest and deepest form of democracy based on the grassroots movements of
workers, peasants, oppressed nationalities, youth, and students. Of course,
these organizations had weaknesses and flaws. However, had they not been
dissolved or suppressed by the Islamic Republic, it would have been entirely
possible for them to develop as the basis of a government of the people, by the
people, and for the people, establishing the first democratic government in
Iran's history.
In the Russian socialist
revolution of October 1917, it was this process that determined the socialist
character of the revolution, not merely the leadership of the Bolsheviks and
the nationalization of the economic infrastructure. As Lenin remarked:
"The socialist
character of Soviet, i.e., proletarian, democracy, as concretely applied today,
lies first in the fact that the electors are the working and exploited people;
the bourgeoisie is excluded. Secondly, it lies in the fact that all bureaucratic
formalities and restrictions of elections are abolished; the people themselves
determine the order and time of elections, and are completely free to recall
any elected person. Thirdly, it lies in the creation of the best mass
organization of the vanguard of the working people, i.e., the proletariat
engaged in large-scale industry, which enables it to lead the vast mass of the
exploited, to draw them into independent political life, to educate them
politically by their own experience; therefore for the first time a start is
made by the entire population in learning the art of administration, and in the
beginning to administer (Lenin, April 1918).”
Policy Framework
Even if the working
people take over state power, the question still arises as to what framework
should be adopted for policymaking.
Some Native Indian tribes
used a golden rule: choose a policy that will be good for the next seven
generations. As the Native Americans considered themselves an inseparable part
of nature, the good policy must also be good for the ecosystem of which we are
a small part.
In addition to a
consistent policy to create the infrastructure for democracy from below, Iran's
economic structure must change to create a society that is compatible with the
well-being of its people and the ecosystem of the Middle East and the world, ensuring
social justice. The current war demonstrates the dead-end of Islamic
fundamentalism, Zionism, and imperialism. However, we know that the world is
facing several existential crises, such as global warming and climate chaos,
the Sixth Extinction, recurrent pandemics, and nuclear annihilation. The root
cause is the anthropocentric industrial capitalist civilization.
Science and technology
are not value-free. They have been, especially since the Scientific Revolution
of the 17th century, instruments for the domination and control of nature,
allowing for its plunder for wealth and power (Nayeri, 2021). The fossil fuel-based
economy contradicts the need for a transition to a green economy in every way.
Nuclear technology, whether for energy or nuclear weapons, is inherently
dangerous to the ecosystem and life on the planet (Friends of the Earth
undated). As the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in March 2011 and the
atomic bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States in August 1945
demonstrated. As the recent conflict between Pakistan and India showed and, the
danger posed by bombing Iran's nuclear facilities by Israel and possibly the
United States demonstrates. Progress toward a healthier, safer, and
better world requires the elimination of all nuclear weapons and nuclear
energy.
Here, I am only referring
to the climate crisis in the Middle East. In 2023, the United Nations Climate
Change Risk Assessment Group published a report on the future of the Middle
East and North Africa. The World Bank provided an analysis of its economic
impact (World Bank 2023).
The World Bank predicts
that if climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions is not prevented,
real annual GDP in countries in the Middle East and North Africa will decline
by 1.1% by mid-century, and poor and vulnerable families will increasingly bear
the resulting damage. Despite the unique characteristics of the needs and
facilities for water, energy, and food security in the countries of the region, their
interdependencies are the only way out of this crisis that requires their
cooperation. Structural challenges, primarily related to the lack of financial
resources, inadequate reforms, and limited resources, as well as the lack of
commitment from capitalist state institutions, increase the likelihood of
exacerbating the vulnerabilities caused by climate change in countries in the
Middle East and North Africa.
The solutions proposed by
the UN research group, including the "green transition" from existing
fossil economies to one based on renewable energy (mainly solar and wind), will
significantly reduce the costs of electricity generation. Such a transition
would entail economic benefits, energy security, and long-term financial and
job creation advantages. Eliminating oil and gas flaring and reducing methane
emissions in oil and gas-producing countries could lead to significant economic
benefits while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Another scientific study
was published this week (Santer et al., 2025) that provides evidence that the
onset of atmospheric warming could have been documented as early as 1880. In
fact, in 1896, the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius had shown that the amount
of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere had doubled. Today, there is no
longer any doubt that atmospheric warming and the climate crisis are caused by
the emissions of greenhouse gases resulting from human-centered industrial
capitalist civilization (Nayeri, April 2023).
Of course, the United
Nations research group does not address the human-centered industrial
capitalist civilization as the root cause of the climate disaster. The United
Nations is, in fact, the organization of non-allied capitalist states, not an
independent organization of united working people.
A group of academics and
environmentalists has long argued that the current system pursues unlimited
economic growth while providing us with limited possibilities on the planet we
live on. The confluence of these two realities is the cause of ecosystem crises.
Some of them have created the degrowth movement. Unfortunately, most of them do
not realize that growth in the capitalist system is driven by the system's need
for capital accumulation, and the accumulation of capital depends on profit,
which is only possible by creating surplus value (Nayeri, 2022). However,
contrary to Marxist belief, the source of surplus value is not only the
exploitation of the worker but also the plundering of non-human nature (Nayeri,
December 2023).
As a result, the only way
out of the existential crises and other social problems, including the wars in
the Middle East, is to transition to Ecocentric Socialism. This vision and goal
also represent a redefinition of the type of human life free from all forms of
alienation in a society where money and power deteriorate as quickly as love
for nature and human solidarity become part of our daily lives.
In Iran, this process
will require the rejection of imperialism, Zionism, and religious dictatorship
to open a window to the final emancipation of humanity.
References:
Bruno Bauer. The Jewish Question. 1843.
Berman, Lazar. “How
an Israeli-American Deception Campaign Lulled Iran into a False Sense of Security.”
Times of Israel, June 13, 2025.
Bruno Bauer. The Jewish Question. 1843.
Friends of the Earth. “Is
Nuclear Power Bad for the Earth? No date.
Lenin,
V.I. “The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government.”
April 1918.
Marx,
Karl. On the
Jewish Question. 1843.
Nayeri, Kamran. “Heads
They Win, Tails We Lose: On Iran Nuclear Agreement.” Our
Place in the World: A Journal of Ecosocialism. August 12, 2015.
______________. “The
Case for Ecocentric Socialism.” Our Place in the World: A Journal of
Ecosocialism. July 22, 2021.
______________. “On
Degrowth.” Our
Place in the World: A Journal of Ecosocialism. July 24, 2021.
______________. “The
Labor Theory of Value and Exploitation of Nonhumans: The Case of the Meat
Industry.” Our Place in the World: A
Journal of Ecosocialism. December 31, 2022..
______________. “The
Anthropocentric Industrial Capitalist Civilization and Ecological Crises.” Our
Place in the World: A Journal of Ecosocialism. April 1, 2023..
Santer,
Benjamin, Susan Salmon, David W. I. Thomason, Yaowei Li. “Human
influence on climate detectable in the late 19th century.” PANS, June 16,
202.
World
Bank.
MENA Country Climate and Development Report: Climate change Action in the
Middle East and North Africa (key insights from the reports).November 2023.