MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) and regional climate justice advocates today strongly condemned the US and Israel-led attack on Iran as “a clear act of aggression and outright violation of the UN Charter and international law.”
In a collective statement, APMDD leaders said the ongoing military campaign against Iran exemplifies a “geopolitics of destruction” at an immense humanitarian and regional cost. “The US and Israeli governments have attempted to wrap this aggression in the language of ‘preventive self-defense,’ but there is no legal basis for these strikes under the UN Charter. Illegal acts of war cannot be rationalized by the nature of the regime being targeted. We must reject the selective application of international law that legitimizes destruction in one part of the world while defending sovereignty in another,” the leaders said.
Beyond the legal violations, APMDD leaders argued that the military action serves a deeper strategic purpose, claiming: “This unprovoked assault against Iran exposes a mutually reinforcing agenda of furthering the expansionist, genocidal intent of Israel and maintaining the US’ predatory fossil fuel hegemony, the flow of petrodollars and control over global fossil fuel supply routes.”
The APMDD leaders expanded on the broader implications of this agenda, warning that the strikes signal a collapse of international cooperation in favor of military force: “From Gaza to Venezuela and now Iran, these attacks against a sovereign nation comes only as the latest blow to multilateralism, arrogantly sending the message that might is right, and without any regard for the devastating spillovers on our economies, our climate, and our people.”
“The looming explosion in energy prices, and the cascading rise in the cost of all goods and services, imposes a crushing and unsustainable burden on peoples already reeling from debt crises and accelerating inflation. This is a continuing war of choice, ‘delivering death and destruction’ in the words of US War Secretary Pete Hegseth, to defend fossil-fuel hegemony at the expense of a planet already in the grip of an intensifying climate crisis.”
“As a movement for climate justice, we denounce the redirection of billions of dollars toward war—one of the world’s largest carbon emitters—while climate finance for vulnerable communities remains a pittance. We stand in solidarity with the families who will once again be driven from their homes, facing the trauma of displacement toward Turkey and beyond.”
APMDD, a regional alliance of climate and economic justice movements, trade unions, and community organizations, warns of the sweeping consequences beyond the Gulf region of the US-led campaigns of aggression and conquest backed by other Global North powers. “Far beyond the Middle East, we in Asia and other global regions are being locked into a dangerous dilemma between immediate survival and urgent long-term climate goals.”
Breaking down the economic fallout, Lidy Nacpil, APMDD Coordinator, issued a sharp critique of the region’s current energy dependency. Nacpil said the strikes exposed the extreme fragility of the world’s current energy systems, noting that recent disruptions at liquefied natural gas (LNG) hubs caused prices to surge by 50% in a single day. This volatility threatens to force Asian governments back toward domestic coal, which Nacpil warns could stall efforts to move away from fossil fuels for years. She warned that Asian nations are being locked into a difficult choice between immediate economic survival and long-term environmental goals.
“At the same time, we cannot ignore the profound human cost—from the lives of innocent citizens to the trauma of families forced into displacement—all while billions are redirected toward war instead of the climate finance desperately needed by vulnerable communities,” Nacpil said.
APMDD maintains that the only path toward regional and global stability is through a process of system change, which means “the dismantling a global order driven by profit accumulation through any means, including wars of aggression, and at any cost to peoples and the planet, and embarking on a transition to build a livable and sustainable planet, including swiftly moving away from the fossil fuel domination that drives global conflict.”
Contact:
Lani C. Villanueva
Mobile/WhatsApp +63 9052472970