US-Israeli war against Iran driven by corporate profit, not nuclear concerns: Activist

By Press TV Website Staff

The US-Israeli war against Iran was never about nuclear weapons, but about corporate profit and control over the country’s oil, according to a prominent American anti-war activist.

In an interview with the Press TV website, Mike Ferner, a long-time anti-war activist and former national director of Veterans for Peace, pulled no punches in his criticism of Washington's motives and the influence of Zionist lobbies and US corporations.

Asked whether the US-Israeli war against Iran was necessary, particularly given that it unfolded in the midst of Oman-mediated nuclear talks in Geneva and despite Iran's repeated assertions that it is not seeking a nuclear weapon, Ferner offered a blunt answer.

"The war was necessary if you understand that the US is an empire and US corporations govern it, influenced by Zionists," Ferner told the Press TV website.

He identified financial interests as the primary drivers of the war, not security concerns.

"Weapons-making corporations saw it as an opportunity to make billions," he stated. "Oil companies saw it as a way to reassert control over Iran's oil. These corporations basically control our foreign policy."

Ferner also pointed to the collapse of diplomatic alternatives, noting that a functional nuclear agreement had already existed, one that the Trump administration had previously withdrawn from, referring to the 2015 nuclear deal.

"There was a functioning agreement that Trump will not be able to replace," he said. "In the meantime, Iranians are suffering and dying, while in this country millions of people still go without health care."

Many analysts, including Iranian officials and even some US figures such as former top counterterrorism official Joe Kent, assert that President Donald Trump was drawn into the war by Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who had previously failed to persuade US presidents to directly engage Iran on Israel's behalf.

"It would not surprise me if that were true," the anti-war activist said.

On Washington's stated rationale for the unprovoked war against Iran, Ferner pointed to both Iran's consistent position on its nuclear program and recent US military actions.

Iran has long maintained that it does not seek a nuclear weapon, a position backed by a formal religious decree (fatwa) from the martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

Moreover, during the 12-day war last June, the United States attacked three key Iranian nuclear facilities, claiming to have “obliterated” them.

"It's regime change – to find someone more like the Shah," he said, referring to the deposed West-backed Pahlavi monarchy that ruled Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

"That does not look possible in today's Iran," he said. "It's that, and the desire to control Iran's oil, plus make money for the weapons makers."

With the 2026 FIFA World Cup approaching, to be co-hosted by the US, and midterm elections on the horizon, many believe Trump would be forced to hold back.

Ferner, however, downplayed the global sporting event's domestic political significance.

"The World Cup is important to a small segment of people in the US," he said. "Regardless of international sports, the US cannot afford to continue this war economically, politically or environmentally."

He offered a somber reflection on American democracy and its failure to force the government to end its disastrous and futile wars abroad.

"It is a tragedy – but that's what happens when people here don't govern themselves, but leave it to corporations and madmen," Ferner noted.

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