The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 20th February 2026
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 20th February 2026
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
It’s battle stations in Iran as the people brace themselves for an imminent imperialist onslaught while Reza Pahlevi, the son of the hated former Shah of Persia, lines himself up as a suitable quisling when the time comes.
At secret talks in Geneva the Americans have told the Islamic Republic to abandon its nuclear research programme and its ballistic missile defences while offering little or nothing in exchange. Donald Trump is talking about regime change amid reports that Prime Minis ter Keir Starmer has refused a request by the US President to allow American forces to use British military bases for a potential strike on Iran. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards carried out a naval exercise that temporarily closed the Straits of Hormuz, the vital shipping lane of the Persian Gulf and a key artery for global oil shipments. And the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, says that Iran will not give up its “peaceful” nuclear technology but was open to “any kind of verification” to prove its programme was not aimed at weaponisation.
The Starmer government’s reluctance to get involved in a US–Israeli oil grab is said to revolve around the legality of a new American-led attack on Iran. It also reflects the concerns of Turkey, a close NATO ally of the UK, and the oil kings of Arabia who have spent the past month urging Washington to step back from the brink. And Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused the Americans of “playing with fire” and warned that strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites could cause a nuclear disaster. Lavrov said Russia backs Iran’s right to peaceful enrichment, adding that the current tensions stem from the tearing up of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal by the Americans during Trump’s first term.
In January, Trump said a “massive armada” was heading towards Iran, adding that he hoped Tehran would agree to negotiate and sign a “fair and equitable” deal involving the complete abandonment of nuclear weapons. The oafish American president warned that if no agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme were reached, any future US strike on the country would be “far worse” than the previous ones.
Iran is on red alert, ready for imminent attack from American and Israeli forces that could trigger catastrophic consequences across the entire Middle East. Iran is threatened by a huge American armada in the Persian Gulf. But the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, remains steadfast affirming that the USA has been unable to subdue the Islamic Republic for 47 years and will continue to be unable to do so. He warned that the US military, whose president claims it is the strongest in the world, could receive a “very painful blow” that would render it incapable of recovering should it commit any act of folly.
In a speech delivered in Tabriz on the anniversary of the historic uprising of 1908, Ayatollah Khamenei continued: “They constantly claim that we have sent an aircraft carrier towards Iran. Well, an aircraft carrier is a dangerous machine, but even more dangerous is the weapon that can sink it to the bottom of the sea.”