Respect MP George Galloway is to speak at that World Against War conference in London on Saturday 1 December. He will be speaking between 10.30am and 11am at the international gathering of the anti-war movement.

Among those issues he will be highlighting is the growing threat of a US or Israeli attack on Iran. He has spoken out continuously about this danger through various media.

Below is an extract from a column he wrote for the November issue of a major Middle East current affairs magazine.

‘I was fortunate enough to be invited onto the BBC’s premier current affairs programme, Question Time, at the end of last month. I was more fortunate still that the first question asked of us on the panel from the audience was about the news that day that the US was slapping sanctions on Iran, particularly on its banking sector.

‘Was this a prelude or an alternative to military action, asked a wise audience member.

‘Unfortunately, it seems more likely to be the former. The immediate reason for the US actions – which were endorsed with unseemly haste by the British government – was, I believe, that Russia’s Vladimir Putin had had a productive visit to Tehran and the Chinese government was signalling a greater engagement with the Islamic republic, especially over oil and gas supplies in this era of rising energy prices.

‘It wasn’t so much any Iranian action – after all the International Atomic Energy Authority has once more and yet again declared that it has no evidence of Tehran developing any military nuclear capacity – but rather some deep chess moves by the US’s rivals on the Euroasian land mass, Russia and China.

‘That points to the immensely dangerous and deep forces that are driving this succession of US military adventures in the Middle East. It is not simply the hydrocarbons of the Gulf that are at stake. It is the global rivalry between an ‘American behemoth, which is now limping under the impact of losses in Iraq, and a rising China in closer alliance with a rejuvenated Russia.

‘Into this potent mix we now have the Sarkozy government in France and Merkel’s coalition in Germany. Both are vying to demonstrate that they can be Washington’s interlocutor in Europe.

‘That’s a further problem for Gordon Brown. There was no reason to doubt that he would be inclined to support US action. First, he is an Atlanticist to his core. Secondly, the axis of British foreign policy, irrespective of which government is in power, has since the Suez debacle of 1956 been firmly aligned to Washington.

‘Put in somewhat more industrial language, the former British ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, said he was told by the government to “get up the arse of the Americans and stay there”.

‘The newly forged relations between Washington and Paris and Berlin mean the pressure is for greater venality from London.

‘And all this is taking place as events in the Middle East spiral out of control. The demarche by Turkey’s generals into northern Iraq is fraught with disaster. Of course, it is redolent with irony as well. The US proclaiming that the Turkey doesn’t have the right to violate Iraq’s border because, err, that’s our job.

‘The Kurdish area of northern Iraq was meant to be the haven of stability, the show case of US imposed “democracy”. Now not only does its corruption stand exposed, so too does its vulnerability to event he slightest realignment of the tectonic plates around it.

‘And to cap it all, the US primaries are just around the corner. Would it be beyond the depths of depravity of the Bush gang to aim to create mayhem in the Democrats’ camp by launching a strike on Iran and challenging the presidential hopefuls to come out in support?

‘Hillary Clinton has already indicated that she is as hawkish as any neo-con when it comes to Iran.

‘Yes, as Mr Churchill put it, we appear to be on the edge of yet another bloody helter-skelter.’

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