The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) strongly condemns the latest round of military aggression unleashed by the United States and Israel against Iran. This attack constitutes a grave violation of the UN Charter, particularly Article 2(4), which prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. Such unilateral actions undermine the entire framework of international law and collective security.
Iran is a sovereign country of nearly 90 million people and the second-largest economy in West Asia after Saudi Arabia. It possesses approximately 9-10% of the world’s proven oil reserves and around 17% of global natural gas reserves, making it one of the most strategically important energy-producing nations in the world. West Asia as a whole accounts for nearly one-third of global oil production and controls critical maritime routes such as the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption passes daily. Any destabilisation of Iran directly threatens global energy security.
For over four decades, Iran has faced continuous sanctions, financial blockades, and covert destabilisation efforts. Since the withdrawal of the US from the 2015 nuclear agreement (JCPOA) in 2018, economic sanctions have intensified, cutting Iran off from global banking systems and drastically reducing its oil exports. These sanctions have severely impacted ordinary working people - leading to inflation, currency devaluation, rising unemployment, and shortages of essential goods - while failing to achieve any constructive diplomatic outcome.
Military escalation in the region must also be viewed in the broader context of the deepening crisis of global capitalism. The world economy continues to face slowing growth, volatile financial markets, supply chain fragmentation, and intensifying trade conflicts. Global military expenditure has crossed 2.4 trillion US dollars annually, the highest in history, with the United States alone accounting for nearly 40% of global defence spending. In such a scenario, war and militarisation become instruments for stimulating the military-industrial complex and reasserting geopolitical dominance and control over natural resources in favour of the crisis-hit US economy.
The cowardly targeting of civilian infrastructure, educational institutions, and urban areas violates international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions. The targeted bombing of a girls’ school in Minab, South Iran, killing more than 165 children, shows the extension of brutality and barbarity of the US - Israeli regime. The retaliatory actions targeting US military bases are also causing destruction in the region, including civilian deaths. The Indian diaspora in the region is under fear and pressure. Escalation is drawing in multiple regional actors, transforming the conflict into a wider war across West Asia.
Such a development would have devastating consequences: surging oil prices, inflationary shocks across developing economies, food supply disruptions, increased refugee flows, and further militarisation of global politics. For countries like India, which import over 80% of their crude oil requirements, instability in West Asia directly translates into higher fuel prices, rising transport costs, and an increased burden on working people.
The rhetoric of defending democracy or human rights cannot conceal the consistent US - driven pattern of regime-change interventions seen in Iraq, Libya, and elsewhere, where external military intervention led to prolonged instability, social collapse, and economic devastation. It should be unambiguously stated that the right to determine the political, economic, and social system of Iran belongs exclusively to its people - not to the US or Israel, pursuing imperialist strategic and corporate interests.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visible political embrace of Israel, particularly in defence and security cooperation, marks a decisive departure from India’s traditional policy and close relationships with Palestine and Iran. At a time when tensions with Iran have escalated, the government’s muted stance and apparent distancing from longstanding strategic and connectivity engagements with Tehran suggest a geopolitical realignment driven more by ideological affinity towards Zionist Israel and subjugation to US political pressure than by independent national interest. This shift risks undermining India’s credibility as a balanced regional actor while placing both its diaspora and energy security in a vulnerable position.
In the current West Asian crisis, the Modi government’s foreign policy choices have exposed millions of Indians in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries - United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain - to heightened insecurity and uncertainty.
Instead of maintaining India’s historically balanced West Asia approach, the government’s overt strategic posturing has aggravated the concerns of the migrated 9 million Indian workers as well, amid rising regional instability threatening their lives, livelihoods, safety, and remittance flows.
CITU expresses its unwavering solidarity with the people of Iran and all working people across West Asia who are bearing the brunt of imperialist aggression and the collateral impact of retaliatory moves by Iran. As part of the international class-oriented trade union movement, we reaffirm that the struggle against war is inseparable from the struggle against exploitation and imperialism. Working people across the world must unite against militarism, economic coercion, and attempts to redraw geopolitical maps through force.
CITU urges the Central Government to take immediate and necessary steps to ensure the protection of Indians stuck in GCC countries. CITU calls upon the workers and people of India to take to the streets against the dastardly attack on Iran by the US and Israel, against the escalating war situation in West Asia, and to condemn the failed role of the Modi government in this fiasco, as well as its notorious strategic shift towards the Zionist and imperialist order.
Issued by
Elamaram Kareem
General Secretary
