New Delhi: “I have something to say because I’m my mother’s daughter and because I need to straighten my shoulders and say this. It’s a little statement about the war that is about to consume the world.

“I know we are here today to talk about Mother Mary Comes To Me, but how can we end the day without talking about those beautiful cities – Tehran, Isfahan and Beirut – that are up in flames? In keeping with my mother Mary’s spirit of candour and impoliteness, I would like to use this platform to say something about the unprovoked and illegal attack by the United States and Israel on Iran.

“It is, of course, a continuation of the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza. It’s the same old genocidees, using the same old playbook. Murdering women and children, bombing hospitals, carpet bombing cities, and then playing the victim.

“But Iran is not Gaza.

“The theatre of this new war could expand to consume the whole world. We’re on the brink of nuclear calamity and economic collapse. The same country that bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki could be readying itself to bomb one of the most ancient civilisations in the world.

“There will be other occasions to speak of this in detail, so here, let me simply say that I stand with Iran unequivocally. Any regimes that need changing, including the US, Israel and ours, need to be changed by the people, not by some bloated, lying, cheating, greedy, resource grabbing, bomb dropping imperial power and its allies, who are trying to bully the whole world into submission.

“Iran is standing up to them while India cowers. I am ashamed of how gutless and how spineless our government has been. Long ago, we were a poor country of very poor people, but we had pride, we had dignity. Today,........

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