City of Minneapolis issued the following announcement on Jan. 23.
The Minneapolis City Council approved a resolution today opposing war with Iran and calling for immediate de-escalation. The resolution also calls on the U.S. Senate to pass a concurrent resolution, supporting what the U.S. House has already passed, directing the president to take all necessary actions to prevent war with Iran. The City of Minneapolis opposes killing Iranian civilians, destroying Iranian cultural sites, and all other actions that would be war crimes threatened by the Trump administration.
The resolution states that Congress has not yet authorized using military force against Iran, and the unilateral actions of the Trump administration including decisions to pull out from the Iran nuclear agreement and to assassinate Iranian general Qassem Soleimani have created the current crisis.
The resolution also states that Minneapolis taxpayers have paid more than $2 billion in federal income taxes to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which could have instead supported critical local needs. Federal spending on critical local needs has not kept pace with the programs and services needed in local communities including public housing.
The resolution recognizes the Iranian-Americans who are part of the Twin Cities community and part of a large diaspora across the U.S. whose families continue to be impacted by the travel ban, economic sanctions and escalation with Iran.
Minneapolis has previously gone on record opposing the Iraq war, calling on Congress to shift federal funding priorities from military operations to meeting the essential needs of local communities, and condemning Islamophobia and acts of violence against the Muslim community.
Original source can be found here.
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