South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) on Monday unequivocally condemned the recent military action by the US and Israel against Iran, calling for accountability before international law.

Last week, the US and Israel launched a massive military offensive against Iran, which retaliated by targeting US military operations in Gulf countries. A girls' primary school had been bombed in the initial attack and killed more than 200 people, including 153 schoolchildren.

On Saturday, the Iranian second supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed during a joint military strike.

The attacks come amid negotiations between the US and Iran over the latter’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programmes, after weeks of mounting threats from US President Donald Trump.

SAJFP said this was a war of aggression against Iran, and not a “spontaneous” reaction to recent events but a culmination of a 30-year strategic blueprint.

“It is the direct realisation of the 1996 policy document, ‘A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm’, authored by a study group led by neoconservative Richard Perle for then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” it said.

The SAJFP said while it supported Iranians who have revolted against Khamenei’s regime, his assassination by the US was an unacceptable and illegal act. 

The organisation said freedom for Iranians cannot take place under conditions of “imperial domination and foreign bombardment”.

“What we are witnessing today is the violent fruition of that plan – a paradigm shift achieved not through diplomacy, but through full settler conquest and military devastation.

“This as Trump’s regime continues to lash out at nations across the world, creating chaos and instability not only in Iran but in Venezuela, Cuba and other countries, and continuing to enforce its colonial goals through the absurd imperial Board of Peace, which seeks to determine the future for the Gazan people without any input from them whatsoever,” it said.

The SAJFP rejected what it termed the “fraudulent legal and moral claims” being used to justify an assault on Iran.

“The concept of a ‘pre-emptive strike’ is not a valid legal concept under international law, which strictly prohibits acts of aggression outside the framework of immediate self-defence against an actual, ongoing armed attack,” it said.

The SAJFP noted that Iran stated that it would not attack US military bases or Israel, unless attacked first.

The bombing of sovereign Iranian territory constitutes a grave violation of the UN Charter, it added.

The organisation warned that this escalation could easily spiral into a conflict across the Middle East and beyond.

“Already, US bases in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan are seeing fire, while rockets are being fired at Israel in retaliation. This newest US/Israeli war will keep no one safe and we call on all US and Israeli citizens to see through the lies that are used to justify the never-ending aggressive pursuit of imperial power,” urged the SAJFP.