Let us not be deluded by the latest anti-Iranian move by the US (October 26), for these sanctions have little to do with terrorism in the Middle East, the export of missiles and the build-up of nuclear weapons but everything to do with an attempt to ensure that Iran's combined gas and oil reserves (the second largest in the world), allied to control of Iraq's oil resources, remain within the US sphere of control.

It is wrong for the US to criticise Iran's nuclear programme for two reasons. First, the production, possession and use of nuclear weapons was outlawed in the 1980s by a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeni as this was against Islam. Repeated visits by teams from the International Atomic Energy Authority headed by Mohammed El Baradei have failed to find any evidence of nuclear weapon production.

However, the increasing influence of both Russia and China is threatening perceived US dominance in the long-term. Pipelines now not only stretch from central to eastern Russia and into China but also from former Russian states, such as Turkmenistan and Kazakstan, into China, from Iran across Pakistan and India to China, and from Myanmar into China.

The build-up of American forces in Europe is not directed against China but against Russia, while the further development of Trident nuclear warheads in Britain and the US is part of the misnamed defensive shield. This belligerency is due to a shift in the domestic political scene which must be recognised internationally.

The Bush government has removed many of its international constraints, while at home it made every effort to polarise its society by entering into adversarial politics and reducing many of the rights secured by women and the minorities in the1960s and 1970s. Internationally, just before 9/11, it announced its intention to withdraw from 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, refused to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, arranged the failure of the Additional Protocol on Biological Weapons and sought to block the creation of the International Criminal Court, while after 9/11 it attacked the United Nations, international humanitarian law and domestic civil rights.

The administration then claimed limitless powers to overturn international law and domestic constitutionalism, even stating that the President had the inherent authority to override international law.

Finally, the Protect America Act 2007, passed by both houses of Congress, gives the government wide powers of surveillance of information and terrorism without judicial control.

The British government also needs to look much more closely at the domestic policies of the US, for that country is progressively losing its democratic credentials and basing its international power solely on the current overwhelming threat of arms, but that does not last forever and will be challenged. In addition, the US economy rests on a very unstable foundation which cannot continue without a hiccough.

The USA is not a democracy in the true sense of the word and it is essential that Gordon Brown and his government do not follow blindly as the government did under Blair.

Jaw, jaw is better than war, war.

Ian Saint-Yves, Dunvegan, School Brae, Whiting Bay, Isle of Arran.

Economic sanctions worked admirably well against Libya, and halted its nuclear programme. Sanctions against North Korea, too, are making its Dear Leader think twice about his nuclear ambitions. Why should the US plan vis-a-vis Persia not be as effective?

The more we appease Ahmadinejad, the more perilous the world situation becomes.

A Soudry, 318 Ayr Road, Glasgow.