President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, also Chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement -NAM (2024-2027) has voiced his strong disapproval of external military intervention, specifically implicating the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in the Middle East’s conflicts.
President Museveni’s remarks are in his statement prompted by the Iranian Ambassador to Uganda, who complained why the NAM leadership had not commented on the war in the middle East which is entering the 11th day with the two countries trading missiles, leading to hundreds of deaths. The United States also entered the war on Saturday with an aerial strike on Iran’s Nuclear facilities further escalating the conflict.
President Museveni stated that believing “the use of force, especially force from outside the concerned Country, as a solution” is a “mistake” and “always invites reactions that may even affect the interventionists”.
Museveni cited historical examples of failed interventions, including the Papacy’s attempts to maintain Catholic hegemony in Europe, Metternich’s fight against bourgeois ideas on behalf of Europe’s feudal order, and the 14 intervention powers in the Soviet Union aiming to eradicate the Communist Movement. He noted that such interventions often lead to the disappearance of the interventionists themselves, asking, “Where is the Austro-Hungarian Empire?”
The President directly linked the 1953 CIA-led overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected leader, Mohammad Mosaddegh, to the current resentment and the rise of the clerics in Iran. He emphasized that force should only be used for “legitimate defence and not for aggression”.
Museveni appealed to all actors in the Middle East to “draw back from the use of force and go back to the principled diplomacy”. He advised Iran and other Islamists to recognize Israel, and conversely, urged Israel to implement the two-state solution.
“Whenever I visit Iran like when His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was president, I told them that their stand that Israel is a “transplant” in the Middle East and does not belong there legitimately, is a mistake.” Museveni stated adding; “the second group of mistake-makers are the Israelis themselves. Why have they refused the implementation of the two-state solution? It is not correct for them to say that Palestinians do not belong there.”
