Petition is addressed to: Internationale Gemeinschaft, EU, Nationale Regierungen

Call against a New War in the Middle East

Drums of a war are beating loudly again, in the Middle East. On one side stands the military power of USA and its regional allies; on the other, the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Escalating tensions could, in the worst- case scenario, —intentionally or unintentionally —, spark a new war in the region. The world is still suffering from consequences the 2003 war against Iraq, which was launched based on false claims and assumptions. The impacts of recent wars, have shown not only the loss of human life and the destruction of buildings and infrastructure, but also the knock-on effects in other regions of the world, not least in Europe, which is still confronted with a large influx of refugees and migrants from war-torn areas. Clearly, irrespective of whether the parties at conflict are right or wrong, innocent people will, once again bear the consequences if there is a military confrontation between the USA and Iran. The region will erupt into chaos, but just as in the Iraq war, results as anticipated by the initiators will not be delivered.

The undersigned wish to bring a call against the imminent war and appeal to the conflict parties to return to negotiating table. Signatures: Hannes Swoboda, President of the International Institute for Peace (IIP), former president of the social democrat faction of the EU Parliament Heinz Gärtner, Prof. University Vienna, Institute for political science, International Institute for Peace, Vienna Bert Fragner, Prof. emer. Director of the Institute for Iranian Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences . Wolfgang Petritsch, Diplomat, former UNO Special Envoy for Bosnia and Herzegovina Manfred Nowak, Prof. University Vienna, Faculty of Law, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Human Rights Gudrun Kramer, Director, Austrian Center for the Studies of Peace and conflict management. Stephanie Fenkart, Director, International Institute for Peace (IIP), Vienna Erwin Lanc, Former Austrian Federal Minister, Honorary president of IIP Jale Lackner-Gohari, ret. Medical Coordinator/UN Organizations Siroos Mirzaei, Head of the Institute for Nuclearr Medicine, Vienna Behrooz Bayat, Physicist, Nuclearanalyst Penny (Petra) Bayr, Member of the Austrian Federal Parliament, Social Democrat Peter Steyrer, the Greens, EU-Coordinator Wilfried Graf, Co-Founder und Co-Director of the Herbert C. Kelman Institute for Interactive Conflict Transformation, Senior Research Affiliate at the Centre for Peace Research and Peace Education at the Alpen-Adria-University of Klagenfurt Gerhard Marchl, Karl-Renner-Institute, European Politics, Vienna Florent Marciacq, Deputy Secretary General of Austrian-French Center for Rapprochement in Europa Mitra Shahmoradi, Freelance Artist, Painter, Poet and Art Educator Dieter Segert, Prof. University of Vienna, Institute for Political Sciences Fritz Edlinger, Secretary General, Society for Austro-Arabian Relations Eva Nowotny, Former Ambassador, Kreisky-Forum, Foreign Policy and United Nations Association of Austria. Ottmar Höll, Prof. University of Vienna, Institute for Political Sciences