“The US Vice-President, Joe Biden, says America will not stand in the way of an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities”, a July 7 Sydney Morning Herald article said.

“Responding to questions on the American ABC TV’s This Week, Mr Biden said three times that Israel was free to do what it needed to do.”

Israel has repeatedly threatened to launch missile strikes against Iranian plants enriching uranium. The US and Israeli governments have claimed that these plants are part of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program, despite a lack of evidence.

Iran says it is enriching uranium for domestic nuclear power.

Biden said the US was not at the moment planning a military attack on Iran. However, he said if Israel chose to bomb Iran “that is their sovereign right”.

The US State Department later denied Biden’s comment were a green light for an Israeli attack.

A military assault on Iran would be an attack on the whole of the Iranian people, including those who have been in the streets fighting for democracy.

Reese Erlich, a freelance journalist who was an eyewitness to the recent post-election protests, said that in Iran “virtually everyone believes that Iran has the right to develop nuclear power, including enriching uranium”.

In a June 26 Therealnews.com article, Erlich said: “I didn’t meet any Iranians calling for U.S. intervention; that’s strictly a debate inside the Washington beltway.”

Ordinary Iranians would be its main victims of such an attack. Also, the regime would use such an attack to rally people around itself under the name of “national unity” against outside aggression.

The only purpose of such an attack would be to further US and Israeli imperialist interests.