Donald Trump’s Oct. 13 tirade against Iran was filled with lies and greatly increases the likelihood of war. The ANSWER Coalition condemns Trump’s decision to decertify the Iran nuclear deal – the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – and his other announcements aimed at stepping up U.S. aggression towards the country.

Trump made the ridiculous claim that the JCPOA was a one-sided deal in favor of Iran. In fact, Iran has destroyed over two-thirds of its centrifuges, much of its enriched uranium reserves and accepted a harsh cap on enrichment. In return, the unjust international sanctions imposed on the country – a form of economic warfare against the people of Iran – were largely lifted. The Iranian government has always maintained that its nuclear program was for civilian, peaceful purposes.

Trump opened his speech by presenting a totally distorted picture of Iranian history. In Trump’s imagination, all of the country’s problems started after the 1979 revolution that toppled the rule of the country’s monarch, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. In reality, the Shah was a bloodthirsty ruler who took dictatorial control of the country in a U.S.-backed coup against democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.

The Iran nuclear deal is not a bilateral agreement between Iran and the United States, it is an internationally recognized arrangement that is signed by all five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council in addition to Germany. It remains to be seen if the other signatories will move to counter Trump and keep the deal alive. Whether or not this happens, Donald Trump made clear his intention to escalate U.S. efforts at regime change and heighten U.S. intervention across the Middle East in the name of “combating Iranian influence.”

It is more important than ever to make opposition to imperialist war a central issue in the resistance to the Trump agenda – the opposite of what the opportunist politicians in the Democratic Party have done.