Dear Mr. Peters

Dear Mr. Peters

Re: "Drumbeats of War", NZ Herald, Monday, June 30, 2008, pA13

Can you please inform me what, if any, view the Government might have of a possible attack on Iran by Israel, the United States, or any other nation?

I am aware that claims have been made by the US and Israel that Iran is attempting to make nuclear weapons.

I am aware they have so far presented no credible evidence to support these claims.

I am aware that the IAEA has found no evidence of any nuclear weapons programme in Iran.

I am aware Iran denies any such programme and has declared that nuclear weapons are un-Islamic and contrary to the will of Allah.

I am aware Iran asserts that electronic documents from US and Israeli intelligence services are forgeries. These documents purport to show a link between the civilian nuclear program and the Iranian military. The US and israel have refused to allow Iran, or anyone other than the IAEA, to examine the subset of documents they claim as solid proof.

As Israeli rhetoric has recently shifted from "if" there will be an attack to to "when" there will be an attack, I think it important and urgent that the New Zealand government express a view on any such attack that makes it very clear any unprovoked attack on Iran is unjustifiable and that an attack without authorisation from the UN Security Council, based on clear ,unequivocal evidence, would be a war crime.

This current campaign against Iran is very similar to the one against Iraq: a rising tide of claims and aggressive rhetoric and propaganda, unsupported by evidence. Then come the attacks.

I hope the New Zealand government would object in the strongest possible terms to any such attack should it occur. We should also refuse to join in any subsequent escalation of conflict arising from the after math of such an attack.

Yours sincerely.......etc.