THE war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran is an unprovoked act of aggression.

It is the most dangerous action undertaken by the Donald Trump government yet.

The Middle East has been plunged overnight into a serious war. It already embroils other countries, because the US military bases used to perpetrate this attack — launched just as Oman announced a breakthrough in talks on Iran’s nuclear power programme, which Washington used as a feint — are situated across the region.

It is the height of hypocrisy for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to condemn Iran for firing on those military bases. It is retaliating against a US military which is attacking it. His call should be for the United States and Israel to call off their murderous barrage.

Murderous is the word. Within hours of the war starting Israel bombed a girls’ primary school in the Iranian city of Minab. So far, the death toll from that atrocity is 148, most of them small girls.

Starmer accusing Iran of “indiscriminate attacks” is once again turning a blind eye to war crimes by British allies.

Killing Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (alongside his daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter) is a reckless move by two politicians — Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu — who are out of control.

It makes the war existential for the Iranian state, making it harder to find an off ramp. It incentivises revenge. And states all over the world, seeing the US kidnap and kill other countries’ leaders, know all the rules that govern international and state-to-state relations have gone up in flames; Trump’s new world disorder is one of unrestrained violence and chaos.

Because our politicians and mainstream media have misrepresented this conflict from the start, we must be clear: this war is the sole responsibility of the United States and Israel.

Iran is not breaching any international law by developing nuclear power for civilian purposes, something lots of countries do.

It has always denied seeking a nuclear weapon, but even if it did, nuclear-armed states like the United States and Israel, with records — unlike Iran — of starting wars against multiple other countries, have no right to object. Nor is it “destabilising the Middle East.” It is Israel, not Iran, that bombed six countries (Palestine, Iran, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria and Yemen) last year, and bombed targets in Greek, Maltese and Tunisian territorial waters.

Starmer calls on Iran to return to the negotiating table. It was at the negotiating table when it was attacked. It was at the negotiating table last year, and it was subject to a sneak attack by Israel and the United States then, too. It even came to an international agreement limiting its nuclear power programme in 2015, to which Britain as well as the United States was a signatory; Trump ripped up that deal.

One of the many disastrous consequences of this appalling war is that diplomacy and negotiation are undermined everywhere. Why should anyone trust these processes? The most powerful state in the world never keeps its word.

Britain has not taken part in attacks on Iran. But our bases are used by the United States across the Middle East; Starmer says our planes are in the air, to “protect our people, our interests and our allies” — helping the US and Israel evade the consequences of their aggression by shooting down Iranian drones.

We are complicit. All supporters of peace and international law must rally to end that complicity: which means condemning Trump’s war, ordering the immediate removal of all US military personnel from British territory and ending all access to our bases by US forces.

Stop the War and CND have called a demonstration to Stop Trump’s Wars on Saturday March 7. Let it leave the government in no doubt that Britain’s people say no to Trump, no to Netanyahu and no to their criminal war.