The full text of the letter published in The Independent:
Sir: As academics working in British universities in the field of Iranian studies, we wish to express our deep concern at what appears to be a determination by the Bush administration to generate an international crisis over Iran. It is our fear that, having generated such an artificial and unnecessary crisis, the US will then embark on a doomed military "solution" in which it will seek to involve the British government and armed forces.
We wish to state in the strongest possible terms our opposition to the American neoconservative strategy towards Iran. In the light of the continuing political and humanitarian crises in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is clear that any extension of western military intervention in the region, whether limited air strikes or a full-scale attack, would be disastrous for the Iranian people, for the populations of the wider region, and for the US and Britain.
We urgently call on the British government, while it is still possible to influence the course of events, to join with our European and international allies and with global public opinion to oppose any new, and surely even more disastrous, military adventure in the Middle East.
Dr STEPHANIE CRONIN
University College, Northampton and SOAS
Professor FRANCIS ROBINSON
Royal Holloway, University of London
Professor A REZA SHEIKHOLESLAMI
University of Oxford
Dr VANESSA MARTIN
Royal Holloway, University of London
Dr LALEH KHALILI
SOAS
Dr ALI M ANSARI
University of St Andrews.
GHOLAM KHIABANY
London Metropolitan University
London WC1
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