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For Immediate Release
January, 02 2020, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Michael O’Neil, Communications Manager | meo@gp.org | 202-804-2758
Holly Hart, Co-chair, Media Committee | media@gp.org | 202-804-2758
Craig Seeman, Co-chair, Media Committee | media@gp.org | 202-804-2758
Greens Condemn Airstrike Against Iran, Call to Pull Back from Brink of War
Green Party leaders strongly condemned Thursday's airstrike in Iraq near the Baghdad airport.
WASHINGTON
Green Party leaders strongly condemned Thursday's airstrike in Iraq near the Baghdad airport. Greens also called for Congress to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) and restrict the President's ability to direct more attacks.
"The Green Party fundamentally opposes preemptive military aggression and advocates diplomacy and nonviolent solutions to crises in the Middle East," said Rita Jacobs, co-chair of the Green Party Peace Action Committee (GPAX). "This reckless attack threatens the lives of countless Iranians, Iraqis and Americans by leading the region to the brink of war."
At least five people were killed in the drone attack, including Major General Qasem Soleimani of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard and Chief of the elite Quds Force Corps. The bombing also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, pro-Iranian chief of an umbrella group for Iraqi militias.
The U.S. Department of Defense confirmed they had acted on President Trump's orders. The Green Party, however, rejects the Trump administration's claim that the attack was intended to protect Americans in Iraq.
Bahram Zandi, co-chair of the Green Party's International Committee, noted, "It is difficult to construe this airstrike as a defensive action, as the incident that was supposedly the basis for the airstrike was already on the way to being successfully resolved. We demand that our government adheres to international law, including the Kellogg-Briand Pact, Nuremberg Charter and United Nations Charter, which prohibit any and all preemptive wars or first strikes with any and all weaponry, nuclear and non-nuclear."
" U.S. military aggression serves war profiteers, not the people," said Lisa Savage, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate from Maine. "We cannot bomb our way to a peaceful resolution of the conflict zone our nation has created in Iraq, nor is deliberately provoking Iran in our best interests as a nation. Diplomacy and the restoration of congressional authority over the president's use of the U.S. military are urgently needed. We need senators and congresspeople willing to stand up to the Pentagon and the executive branch of government to say no to more warmongering."
The Green Platform calls for the repeal of the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) 2001, and opposes other measures 'authorizing' preemptive or illegal military actions, delegating to the president sole power to commit acts of war.
Green Party leaders are calling on members, elected officials and candidates to join peace organizations such as Code Pink and Popular Resistance in the streets this Saturday to demand an end to U.S. aggression in the region.
For More Information
In major escalation, American strike kills top Iranian commander in Baghdad Hassan, Falih, Alissa J. Rubin. The New York Times, Jan.l 1, 2020
Pro-Iranian Protesters End Siege of U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Salim, Mustafa, Liz Sly. The Washington Post, Jan. 2, 2020
Iran's top general killed in US airstrike John, Tara, Julia Hliingsworth, John Picheta. CNN, Jan. 3, 2020
Attack on US Embassy exposes widening US-Iraq divide on Iran Burns, Robert. Associated Press, Jan. 3, 2020
Qassem Soleimani assassination: Trump is playing with fire to save his presidency Entessar, Nader, Kaveh Afrasiabi. Middle East Eye, Jan. 3, 2020
'An Explicit Act of War': US Kills Senior Iranian Military Official Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad Drone Strike Higgins, Eoin. Common Dreams, Jan. 2, 2020
Green Party Platform: Foreign Policy
The Green Party of the United States is a grassroots national party. We're the party for "We The People," the health of our planet, and future generations instead of the One Percent.
(202) 319-7191LATEST NEWS
'Not Another Penny for Another Endless War,' Ilhan Omar Says as Trump Seeks $200 Billion
One advocacy group leader highlighted that "$200 billion is enough to materially change the lives of Americans," from establishing universal pre-K education to building over 100,000 housing units.
Mar 19, 2026
As US President Donald Trump on Thursday confirmed reporting that he's seeking $200 billion more from Congress to continue waging his unpopular war of choice on Iran, Rep. Ilhan Omar was among those forcefully pushing back.
"We're told there's no money for universal healthcare or to end hunger in this country. But somehow $200 billion more for war will likely move through Congress without question," said the progressive Minnesota Democrat, who fled civil war in Somalia as a child. "Not another penny for another endless war."
Since Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started bombing Iran late last month—creating a spiraling crisis that has now killed and injured thousands of people across the Middle East, plus damaged civilian infrastructure in multiple countries—anti-war lawmakers and organizations have delivered similar messages.
"While they kick 17 million Americans off their healthcare, Republicans want to spend billions on Trump's reckless war of choice," Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in early March. "Hell no."
Last week, shortly after Pentagon officials told Congress that just the first six days cost Americans more than $11.3 billion, over 250 groups collectively told lawmakers on Capitol Hill to "vote against any additional funding for Trump's unconstitutional war."
At the time, the reported figure was a quarter of what it is now: $50 billion. The coalition noted that the funding "would be enough to restore food assistance for 4 million Americans that was taken away in the tax and budget reconciliation bill, establish universal pre-K education, and pay for the annual construction of more than 100,000 units of housing, among other possible priorities."
After Trump confirmed that he wants four times more than expected, one coalition member, the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) Policy Project, took to social media to highlight other ways the money could be spent to improve the lives of working Americans, from school meals and paid leave to funding all levels of education.
Another coalition member, Public Citizen, released a Thursday statement in which co-president Robert Weissman ripped Trump's spending request as "grotesque beyond words."
According to Weissman:
It should properly be understood not just as a request to replenish supplies, but to expand, escalate, and perpetuate the illegal, unconstitutional, unpopular and devastating war on Iran. Congress should understand that approving any portion of this funding opens the gates for one, two, and potentially many more war funding requests in the future.
How dare the administration propose this gargantuan sum to expand an illegal war of choice at the same time it has rammed through deep cuts in healthcare and food assistance, refuses to spend foreign assistance at a cost of millions of lives, and has cut spending on protecting clean air, maintaining our national parks, investing in health research, protecting consumers from fraud, and so much more.
$200 billion is enough to materially change the lives of Americans and truly make our country stronger. It would be enough to restore food assistance to the 4 million Americans and Medicaid to the 15 million Americans who will lose those crucial supports under the Republican reconciliation bill; establish universal pre-K education; pay for the annual construction of more than 100,000 units of housing; double the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency; and expand Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing.
Weissman argued that "every member of Congress should announce, right now, that they will reject this monstrous war funding proposal, before it is formalized."
Despite rising casualties across the Middle East and polls showing that the US assault on Iran is unpopular, even with Trump voters, a few Democrats voted with nearly all Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives earlier this month to reject war powers resolutions intended to end Trump's Operation Epic Fury. The upper chamber blocked a similar effort late Wednesday.
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Germany said Wednesday that it will drop its planned intervention in the International Court of Justice genocide against Israel so that it can better focus on its own defense in a separate ICJ case filed by Nicaragua accusing Berlin of enabling Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza via arms sales.
Deputy German Foreign Minister Josef Hinterseher said during a press conference in Berlin that his country "will not intervene" on Israel's side in the South Africa v. Israel genocide case filed at the Hague-based tribunal in December 2023.
This is a marked departure from Germany's January 2024 announcement that it would intervene on behalf of Israel in the case, arguing that the genocide allegation made by South Africa had "no basis whatsoever."
Nearly two dozen nations, most recently the Netherlands, Namibia, and Iceland, have either formally intervened on the side of South Africa or announced their intent to do so. The Herero and Nama peoples of modern-day Namibia suffered a genocide during the region's colonization by Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
A handful of countries including the United States, Hungary, and Fiji have also intervened on behalf of Israel.
In 2024, Nicaragua filed a case against Germany at the ICJ, arguing that the European nation “has not only failed to fulfill its obligation to prevent the genocide committed and being committed against the Palestinian people... but has contributed to the commission of genocide in violation" of the Genocide Convention.
Germany has provided financial, military, diplomatic, and political support to Israel. It also temporarily halted financial contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) based on unsubstantiated Israeli claims that a dozen of its worjers were involved in the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023.
Unlike Germany, the US and Israel are not members of the ICJ. The US quit the tribunal after it ruled against the Reagan administration in Nicaragua v. United States, a 1984 ruling that determined the US illegally supported Contra terrorists and mined Nicaraguan harbors.
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Further complicating matters, Germany is one of numerous countries which have intervened in Gambia v. Myanmar, which the African nation filed at the ICJ in 2019 amid the Burmese junta's ongoing genocide against Rohingya Muslims.
The ICJ has issued several provisional orders in South Africa v. Israel, including directives to prevent genocidal acts and allow aid into the besieged Gaza Strip amid a burgeoning famine. Israel has been accused of ignoring these orders.
The US under the Biden and Trump administrations pressured ICJ members to refrain from intervening on behalf of South Africa. The Trump administration has also sanctioned members of the International Criminal Court (ICC)‚ which in 2024 issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.
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German police punch an anti-genocide woman in front of the cameras.
[image or embed]
— Antifa_Ultras (@antifa-ultras.bsky.social) October 7, 2025 at 2:20 PM
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"To pull the region back from the brink and prevent the further loss of civilian life and destruction of vital public infrastructure, renewed diplomatic efforts are critical."
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United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk renewed his call for achieving peace through diplomacy on Thursday, highlighting how the US-Israeli war on Iran is having a disproportionate impact on civilians across the Middle East.
"The human cost of this reckless war is alarming. Hostilities are being waged without regard to the immediate and long-term consequences for civilians across the entire region," Türk said in a statement as the US and Israel bombed Iran, retaliatory Iranian strikes hit fossil fuel facilities throughout the region, and Israeli forces attacked alleged Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
"Attacks on energy infrastructure—including South Pars in Iran and Ras Laffan in Qatar—will only compound hardship," the UN official warned. "Disastrous humanitarian, economic, and environmental consequences will be triggered if such attacks continue, resulting in deep harm to civilians—potentially for years to come."
On Wednesday, Israel struck Iran's South Pars gas field and Qatar said that Iranian missiles caused "extensive damage" to the world's largest liquefied natural gas export facility. US President Donald Trump then threatened to "massively blow up the entirety" of the Iranian site if attacks on Qatari energy infrastructure continued.
According to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, US and Israeli attacks over the past few weeks have already damaged at least 67,414 civilian locations, including homes, schools, medical facilities, energy installations, courthouses, and UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization World Heritage sites.
"All parties to this conflict are bound by their obligations—irrespective of the conduct of any other party—and must take all feasible measures to avoid harm to civilians and damage to civilian objects," Türk stressed. "In times of war, the rule of law, due process, and other human rights obligations continue to apply. The ugly reality of war is not a carte blanche to violate human rights."
The high commissioner declared that "to pull the region back from the brink and prevent the further loss of civilian life and destruction of vital public infrastructure, renewed diplomatic efforts are critical."
He also acknowledged an upcoming Muslim holiday: "Many across the region and beyond will be observing Eid al-Fitr this weekend in circumstances of hardship, uncertainty, and fear. I extend my Eid wishes to all those who observe it, and my heartfelt solidarity to all those enduring the hardships of conflict and instability."
Citing the Iranian Health Ministry, Drop Site News reported Thursday that "at least 1,444 people have been killed and 18,551 injured" across Iran. Reuters noted that as of Wednesday, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency put the death toll in Iran even higher, at 3,134. The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said Thursday that Israeli attacks this month have killed 1,001 people and wounded 2,584 across Lebanon.
Additionally, Iranian missiles have killed at least 15 Israeli civilians and four Palestinian women in the illegally occupied West Bank, according to Reuters. The Israeli military has confirmed the deaths of two soldiers in Lebanon, and the Pentagon has verified that 13 US service members are dead, and another 200 have been wounded.
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