HELP US PREVENT A WAR WITH IRAN

To the Honorable Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations

Dear Mr. Secretary-General,

We are appalled that the United States is threatening a military strike against Iran, possibly using nuclear weapons. As you are well aware, a preventive strike is illegal under international law, and the threat to use nuclear weapons against Iran, a non-nuclear weapons state, is a violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that the United States has signed. A nuclear strike against Iran would undermine the entire legal framework of disarmament and non-proliferation that so many millions of people around the world, and the United Nations itself, have worked so hard to build and protect.

As the head of the United Nations, the repository of international law, you called the U.S./UK invasion of Iraq what it was: illegal. Now we call on you to tell the Bush administration and the world:

--That any preventive military strike against Iran is illegal.

--That even threatening a nuclear strike against Iran - a non-nuclear weapons state - is illegal.

--That a nuclear strike threatens dire consequences - maybe even global war. We urge you to make a diplomatic solution to this crisis your top priority.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

CODEPINK