‘As much as the United States would wish otherwise, Cuba is not alone’
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/much-united-states-would-wish-otherwise-cuba-not-alone
Activists wave Cuban and Palestinian flags from the vessel Maguro, arriving from Mexico with humanitarian aid as part of the “Nuestra America,” or Our America convoy, in Havana Bay, Cuba, March 24, 2026Over 100 MPs call on PM to oppose Trump’s oil blockade on Cuba
MORE than 100 MPs have voiced “grave concern” over Donald Trump’s Cuba oil blockade, calling on PM Sir Keir Starmer to oppose the US president’s “collective punishment” of its civilian population.
Ministers were urged to reject Washington’s threat to slap tariffs on any other country that ships fuel to the island after it kidnapped Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in January.
The US has blocked Venezuelan oil supplies to Cuba’s socialist government, which said last week that it had not received any fuel in three months.
Your Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, Labour, SNP, Plaid Cymru, Green, SDLP, and Lib Dem MPs have now signed an early day motion by Labour MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr Steve Witherden.
Mr Corbyn told the Morning Star: “The aim of the criminal and inhumane blockade by the US is clear: to starve the Cuban people into submission. They will not succeed.
“As much as the United States would wish otherwise, Cuba is not alone.”
They collectively called on the government to reject the “unjustifiable” sanctions and US claims that Cuba poses an “extraordinary” threat.
…
Socialist MP Richard Burgon, who was in Cuba this weekend delivering humanitarian aid with an international delegation, said: “In Cuba I saw the cruel consequences of Trump’s total ban on fuel entering the country, including its impact on the ability to provide healthcare to those in need.
“Cutting off fuel to an entire country is an inhumane attempt by Trump to strangle the Cuban people into submission. It is illegal and it’s putting lives at risk.
“The UK rightly votes against the US blockade at the UN each year, but that must now be matched with action. It should follow Spain’s example and provide emergency humanitarian aid.”
Green Party parliamentary leader Dr Ellie Chowns said: “Trump has intensified his threats against Cuba following the collapse of the island nation’s energy grid under a US-imposed oil blockade, declaring just yesterday that he believes he will ‘take’ the country and ‘could do anything [he] want[s] with it. This cannot continue.”
Cuba Solidarity Campaign director Rob Miller said his group is delighted with the number of MPs who have signed the motion, saying: “Together they represent over seven million UK constituents.
“We now hope the UK government will move quickly to send humanitarian support to Cuba, a country with which we have had full diplomatic and friendly relations for over 120 years.”
…
Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/much-united-states-would-wish-otherwise-cuba-not-alone
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As Trump Threatens to Escalate Further, Majority of Americans Say Iran War Has Already ‘Gone Too Far’: Poll
Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Trump is considering putting US troops on the ground in Iran. Only 12% of Americans want that to happen, according to a new Associated Press-NORC poll.
Nearly six in ten Americans say President Donald Trump’s war in Iran has gone too far, according to a poll out Wednesday from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
The war launched late last month by the US and Israel has led to the deaths of more than 1,400 Iranian civilians, according to the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA), and the displacement of more than 3 million. It has spiraled out across the region while creating a global economic crisis that has caused gas prices to spike to nearly $4 per gallon in the US.
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Now, 59% of American adults say it’s “gone too far,” compared to just 26% who say it’s “been about right” and 13% who say it’s “not gone far enough,” according to the survey of 1,150 people.
Those opposed to continuing the president’s war of choice include 90% of Democrats and 63% of independents. Most Republicans, 52%, say the amount of force used by Trump has been “about right.” Just 20% want him to go further, while 26% say he’s gone too far.
In recent days, as Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has wreaked havoc on global oil prices, Trump has sent thousands more servicemembers to the region and reportedly mulled deploying American ground troops in hopes of reopening the crucial waterway.
Experts have warned that a ground deployment could turn the war into an even greater quagmire. Already, 13 US soldiers have been killed since February 28.
An even larger share of Americans, 62%, said they oppose the idea of deploying US troops on the ground in Iran, while just 12% say they support it and 26% say they have no opinion.
While a minority says it is very important for the US to stop Iran from threatening Israel or to replace its government with one more favorable to the US, Americans are prioritizing issues at home.
Ninety-three percent said it was very or somewhat important for the US to keep oil and gas prices low, which has so far not happened—in less than a month, they have spiked by about a dollar and have not shown signs of coming down, even as Trump has deployed emergency fuel reserves and lifted sanctions on some Iranian oil to juice supply.
A majority of Americans, 65%, also said they felt that preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon—one of Trump’s stated objectives for the war—was a very important foreign policy goal.
However, as journalist and commentator Adam Johnson pointed out in a piece for The Real News on Tuesday, the US public is “grossly misinformed” about the subject—25% wrongly believe Iran already possesses a nuke while 45% believe they are working towards developing one, which has been refuted by US intelligence assessments and reporting based on the testimony of US officials.
The unpopularity of the war with Iran is in line with previous polls showing that the majority of Americans believe the war benefits Israel more than the US and want the war to end quickly.
With Trump having returned to office on the explicit pledge to avoid war with Iran and the cost of living already at the center of the president’s near-historic unpopularity, Republicans’ outlook for this year’s midterm elections looks as grim as ever.
Polling aggregators predict Democrats will easily flip the House, and the Senate is now a toss-up, though Republicans still hold a slight edge.
According to polls, Republicans’ midterm chances truly began to tank in January amid outrage over federal immigration agents’ killings of two US citizens in Minneapolis. Though surveys haven’t shown GOP numbers getting markedly worse since the war began, recent opinion polling suggests it is not a non-factor.
A poll last week from the Institute of Middle East Understanding found that 43% of voters said they’re less likely to support Republicans in the midterms as a result of the war, compared to 31% who said they’re more likely.
Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
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Rejecting Trump Plan, Iran Calls for War Reparations in Ceasefire Counterproposal
Original article by Jessica Corbett republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
“The end of the war will occur when Iran decides it should end, not when Trump envisions its conclusion,” said an Iranian official.
Iranian state media reported Wednesday that Iran has rejected the Trump administration’s 15-point ceasefire plan, and a senior official outlined five conditions for ending the war, which the US and Israel launched late last month.
As President Donald Trump sent thousands more troops to the Middle East, the ceasefire plan “was submitted to Iran by intermediaries from Pakistan, who have offered to host renewed negotiations between Washington and Tehran,” The Associated Press reported early Wednesday, citing an unnamed source briefed on the US proposal.
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As experts warn that a global recession could occur if Iran continues to restrict the flow of fossil fuels through the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters highlighted that elevated “oil prices sank about 5% on Wednesday after reports the United States had sent Iran a 15-point proposal aimed at ending the war.”
However, “Iran has responded negatively to an American proposal aimed at ending the ongoing imposed war,” according to the Iranian state-run Press TV, which spoke with a senior political-security official.
Characterizing previous negotiations with the US—including nuclear talks in the lead-up to the current war—as deceptive, the official said that “Iran will end the war when it decides to do so and when its own conditions are met.”
In addition to the Iranian government’s demands from the recent negotiations in Geneva, the official said, the five conditions under which Iran would now agree to end the war are:
- A complete halt to “aggression and assassinations” by the enemy;
- The establishment of concrete mechanisms to ensure that the war is not reimposed;
- Guaranteed and clearly defined payment of war damages and reparations;
- The conclusion of the war across all fronts and for all resistance groups involved throughout the region; and
- Iran’s exercise of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz is and will remain Iran’s natural and legal right, and it constitutes a guarantee for the implementation of the other party’s commitments, and must be recognized.
A ceasefire is contingent upon acceptance of those conditions, and “no negotiations will be held prior to that,” the official told Press TV. “The end of the war will occur when Iran decides it should end, not when Trump envisions its conclusion.”
The Iranian government this week put the death toll from the US-Israeli assault at over 1,500. According to Reuters, the news agency of the US-based Human Rights Activists in Iran said at least 3,291 people, including 1,455 civilians, are dead. US and Israeli bombings have also damaged tens of thousands of civilian locations, including homes, schools, medical facilities, energy installations, courthouses, and United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization World Heritage sites.
There have also been civilian and military casualties across the region, including more than 1,000 people slaughtered in Israel’s bombing of Lebanon, 16 killed in Israel, and 13 confirmed deaths of US service members, according to the AP.
Speaking at UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday, Secretary-General António Guterres renewed his call for the US and Israel to end their war on Iran, which he said is “out of control” and “has broken past the limits even leaders thought unimaginable.”
“The world is staring down the barrel of a wider war, a rising tide of human suffering, and a deeper global economic shock. This has gone too far,” Guterres said. “It is time to stop climbing the escalation ladder—and start climbing the diplomatic ladder, and return to full respect of international law.”
“I have remained in close contact with many from the region and around the world. A number of initiatives for dialogue and peace are underway. They must succeed,” he continued. “My message to the United States and Israel is that it is high time to end the war—as human suffering deepens, civilian casualties mount, and the global economic impact is increasingly devastating. My message to Iran is to stop attacking their neighbors that are not parties to the conflict.”
The UN chief then turned to Lebanon, which he recently visited: “There, too, the war must stop. Hezbollah must stop launching attacks into Israel. And Israel must stop its military operations and strikes in Lebanon, which are hitting civilians the hardest. The Gaza model must not be replicated in Lebanon.”
Original article by Jessica Corbett republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
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UN chief warns Iran war ‘out of control,’ world staring down barrel of wider conflict
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Wednesday that the Iran war has spun beyond all boundaries, declaring the conflict “out of control,” cautioning that the world faces the prospect of a far broader confrontation, Anadolu reports.
“More than three weeks on, this war is out of control,” Guterres told reporters at a news conference at UN headquarters in New York, adding that “the conflict has broken past the limits even leaders thought imaginable.”
“The world is staring down the barrel of a wider war, a rising tide of human suffering, and a deeper global economic shock,” he said, stressing that it “has gone too far.”
Calling for an end to the military escalation, Guterres said. “It is time to stop climbing the escalation ladder and start climbing the diplomatic ladder, and return to full respect of international law.”
Pointing to the key parties involved in the war, he said, “My message to the United States and Israel is that it is high time to end the war as human suffering deepens, civilian casualties mount, and the global economic impact is increasingly devastating.”
Guterres urged Iran to end attacks on the Gulf countries, arguing that they “are not parties to the conflict.”
Highlighting the economic ripple effects of the war, Guterres said, “The prolonged closure of the Strait (of Hormuz) is choking the movement of oil, gas, and fertilizer at a critical moment in the global planting season.”
Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical artery for global goods and energy trade, had been largely disrupted by escalating tensions in the Gulf following US and Israeli attacks on Iran and Tehran’s retaliation.
READ: Hebrew media: Iran sets five conditions to end war with US and Israel
The strait, which connects Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, and Iran to global markets, handles roughly 25% of global oil trade, about 20% of liquefied natural gas trade, and nearly 30% of fertilizer trade.
The UN chief turned his attention to Lebanon and said, “Israel must stop its military operations and strikes in Lebanon, which are hitting civilians the hardest,” adding, “The Gaza model must not be replicated in Lebanon.”
In efforts to de-escalate tensions, Guterres further announced the appointment of Jean Arnault of France as his “personal envoy to lead the UN efforts on the conflict and its consequences.”
Arnault was the UN chief’s personal envoy on Afghanistan and regional issues in 2021.
When asked for details about Arnault’s role, Guterres said he “will be doing everything possible to support all the efforts for mediation, all the efforts for peace, to be in contact with all the parties” in the Middle East.
Guterres emphasized the need for diplomacy and full respect for international law, expressing hope that the parties involved in the Iran war will reach “an understanding to end this horrible conflict.”
“Because the consequences of the conflict, that is totally out of control at the present moment, are absolutely devastating,” he added.
The region has been shaken since the US and Israel launched a joint offensive on Iran on Feb. 28, so far killing more than 1,300 people, including then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Iran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, along with Jordan, Iraq, and Gulf countries hosting US military assets, causing casualties and damage to infrastructure while disrupting global markets and aviation.
READ: Iraqi factions announce carrying out 23 military operations targeting US bases
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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