The English Facebook page of the
Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan)
has interviewed the comrade in charge of the Office of Foreign Relations of the
Party, Comrade Jaafar Paknia,
on the situation in Syria.
The following is the text of the interview.
Q. Comrade Jaafar, thank you
for the time you are spending with us for this interview. As you know, due to
the Russian aerial bombardment and the destruction of the bases of Daesh (ISIS) and other terrorist groups, the balance of
power has changed in Syria. The regime of Basher Assad has gone on the
offensive, and its forces have advanced significantly. The Turkish government
of Erdogan has violated international norms and
regulations and has frantically bombarded the bases of the Kobane
Kurds and has declared its opposition to any autonomy for the Syrian Kurds. How
do you evaluate these new developments in Syria?
A. The adventurist policy of Erdogan’s government, a government that is sunk in the
dream of the revival of “Great Ottoman Empire” and that shamelessly interferes
in the internal affairs of the countries of the region has faced disgraceful
defeat. This is clearly a sign of political shortsightedness of the present
leadership of Turkey. By sending the Syrian refugees to Europe, Erdogan wanted to pressure the European governments to
agree with his policy of toppling the legal and legitimate government of Assad
and to pretend that only through NATO involvement in Syria and its support for
terrorist organizations and eventually through the overthrow of the Syrian
government, it is possible to stop the influx of refugees to Europe. Erdogan’s inhumane conspiracy has become a policy of
instigation, war, and destruction in the region. This policy was rejected by
the European governments, and consequently Turkey’s shortsighted policy faced a
dead end. Erdogan asked for three billion Euros from
the European countries as blackmail to stop the influx of refugees to Europe.
The gains of the Syrian army against Daesh
through Russian bombardment are increasing daily. These gains have encouraged
the people in the Daesh-controlled regions to resist
and to participate in the war against the terrorist organizations. ISIS has
chosen the “flight” over “Heaven”. These terrorists are returning to their
homelands by the scores. The imperialist-trained Daesh
and Jihadists have spread their terror campaigns to their motherlands. Though
France has fallen victim to terrorist operations, it has not stopped
interfering in the affairs of the Middle Eastern countries. The Western
imperialist countries that supported Daesh and other
terror groups in killing 300 thousand Syrians will not escape these terror
campaigns. Turkey itself will fall victim to Daesh’s
terror campaign soon.
The government of Erdogan that continues
the criminal fascist suppression and bombardment of PKK and the Kurdish people
is extremely frightened by the recent victories of the Syrian government over
the terrorist groups, and it is asking Saudi Arabia and Qatar to jointly
dispatch their armies to Syria to “fight” Daesh. What
a joke! What a lie! These countries have been supporting, training, arming, and
financing ISIS for the past five years. Even Barak Obama and NATO and EU
officials are hesitant about the effectiveness of Erdogan’s
adventurist policies. The armed forces of Turkey enter Syria only for the
purpose of destroying the democratic achievements of the Kobane
Kurds and to fight against the Syrian army. This is obviously in violation of
the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria.
Q. Some hold the opinion that Russian bombardment of Daesh has made the situation worse and has killed many
civilians, that Russia’s objective in its rivalry with the U.S. imperialists is
to preserve and strengthen its interest in Syria and the Region, and that
Russian interference in the Middle East is an imperialist act that should not
be supported. What is your opinion on these issues?
A. Before we talk about the class nature of
the Russian establishment, we must clarify the nature of the war that is being
waged in Syria and the Middle East. We must analyze the reasons why the Western
imperialists headed by the U.S. and their lackeys and allies in the region such
as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, etc. want to overthrow the legal government of
Syria. Isn’t this policy of aggression against Syria consistent with the
doctrine of establishing the “Greater Middle East”? Isn’t this the continuation
of the policy of military aggression against Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, etc.?
Isn’t this policy in the interest of Zionism and world reaction? Do China and
Russia desire to disintegrate Syria and split it into pieces?
It must be emphasized that Syria has political
independence and therefore has the right to freely seek help from any force or
country in order to preserve its national independence and territorial
integrity. This policy of seeking assistance is not new in the struggle of the
people of the world. In the war that is imposed upon Syria, the condemnation of
the Western aggressors and their regional allies must occupy the first place.
These aggressors are seeking the total destruction and disintegration of Syria.
Furthermore, their objective is not limited to the overthrow of Assad’s regime.
The suppression of Lebanon’s resistance movement, aggression against Iran, and
the dispatch of terrorist forces to the borders of Russia all will come next.
The U.S. strategy of “New World Order” is to weaken and remove the allies of
China and Russia, to subdue these two imperialist rivals, and to impose its
hegemony on the globe. The fact is that Eastern imperialists presently do not
have the necessary military power or preparation to wage war on the Western
united military forces of NATO led by the U.S. In the present condition, it is
NATO that has military superiority and violates and threatens the independence,
territorial integrity, and the rights of nations to self determination. Western
imperialism, headed by the U.S., is the source of all present wars and is responsible
for the flight of millions of people from their homelands in the Middle East,
Horn of Africa, Yugoslavia, and Ukraine.
Russia and China vetoed the U.S. proposal in
the UN Security Council and have expressed many times their opposition to the
bombardment of Syria. This is a positive stand, as were the stands of Germany
and France in opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It is clear that behind
these stands and oppositions lie economic and political interests and motives.
A political party, while clarifying the nature of the war and of the forces
involved, must adopt its tactic. The independent state of Syria, as any
independent state, can make use of the present world contradictions to preserve
its independence; otherwise, it will not overcome the aggression imposed on it.
One may simplify a complicated political question and raise a general political
slogan and put his mind at ease by declaring war on all forces involved and
then watch the development of the events. This is not responsible conduct and
it is inconsistent with Marxism and Leninist tactics. Our Party emphasizes that
we must defend the independence and territorial integrity of the countries that
face imperialist military aggression. This defense is a defense for rights of
nations to self-determination by their own people.
We must add that Saudi, Qatar, and Turkey’s
opposition to Syria is over the export of natural gas from the region to
Europe. Iran, Iraq, and Syria planned for a ten-billion-dollar project for the
construction of a pipeline to export Iran’s natural gas to Europe starting in
2010. In 2012, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by these three
countries. Two weeks later, armed clashes started in Syria. Armed terrorist
groups were sent to Syria through northern and southern borders. Qatar, Saudi
Arabia, and Turkey utilized their means to overthrow the regime of Assad. Qatar
now fights for a bigger share of the market for its natural gas, and Saudi
Arabia and Turkey want the gas pipelines to pass through their countries in order
to become a broker for the export of Qatar’s natural gas to Europe and to
collect transit fees.
Q.
Western media claim that Russian bombardments of Syria have killed many
thousands of innocent people and that Russia is responsible for the continuation
of the war and the migration of hundreds of thousands of residents. What are
your views on these claims?
A. Western media lie about the events in Syria and also fabricate
stories consistent with the official line of their governments. The Russian
fighter jets bomb the bases and positions of Daesh
and some other terrorist groups and have significantly weakened Daesh’s grip on the regions under their control. Russia
displayed satellite pictures of stolen oil tankers going from Syria to Turkey. Daesh sells the stolen oil to Turkey at a low price, and
Turkey offers it to the world at the market price. Russian jet fighters bombed
many hundreds of these oil tankers.
Assad’s victories over Daesh and over the
conspiracies and plots of the Western imperialists are very bitter for Turkey,
Saudi Arabia, the U.S., and the Western media. These conspirators try to
disrupt and hinder the fight against the terrorists who have destroyed Syria.
European countries that are vulnerable and are threatened by the terrorist actions
want to stop their losses. They see that their policy of toppling the legal
government of Assad has faced defeat and that their hopes are dashed, though
they – with the help from reactionary regimes of the region such as Kuwait,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Jordon – made use of everything they could,
including the violation of the UN Charter and of the rights of nations to
defeat Assad. Now they are interested in reduction of tension in the region.
They see the reduction of tension in the region as useful to their interests
and to the normalization of relations with Russia. The government of Erdogan that used Daesh of Arab,
Turk, Turkmen, Chechen, Dagestan, and European
nationalities to attack Syria now sees that the terrorist forces are on the run
and are facing defeat followed by another defeat. Erdogan,
with the hope of occupying and annexing northern Syria to Turkey, has invented
a Turkmen national minority in Syria that wants to join Turkey. Turkmen who are
allies of Daesh and who behead Arabs and Kurds are Erdogan’s brothers and friends and are defended as
“non-terrorist” opposition. The Russian jets are making these terrorists
martyrs for Erdogan. And of course, the jets that
make these Turkmen martyrs have to be shut down by the non-terrorists provided
that the U.S. has expressed its consent. With the defeat of Daesh,
the Syrian Kurdish forces are gaining strength, and Erdogan
is losing the hope to split Syria. Obama and Erdogan
play a sly and hypocritical role in the fight against Daesh.
In the present situation, Russians and Assad’s army have no
interest in bombarding the civilian regions. We should mention that long before
the Russian military involvement in Syria, more than 150 thousand terrorists
from 80 countries, financed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar and the U.S. and Europe,
were mobilized to destroy and attack Syria. Now they are defeated and are on
the run. The Western news media tries to instigate public opinion against the
regime of Bashar Assad by engineering lies and
distributing photo shopped pictures.
Q.
What is the future of the regime of President Assad? What stand are the people
taking in this situation?
A. As I have mentioned several times, the U.S. objective is to
overthrow the regime of Assad in the framework of “humanitarian involvement”.
The U.S. imperialists and their allies want to divide Syria into four regions:
a Sunni region in Damascus and its suburbs, the Druze region in the Golan
Heights, the Alavi region in Antakya region, and a
Kurdish region in northeastern Syria. This would make Syria a weak, dependent,
and fragmented country that serves the strategic interest of the U.S. and
Israel and their allies. The silence of the so called human rights
organizations on the violation of the rights of nations by the U.S. imperialists
shows the hypocrisy of the fake human rights organizations.
It must be said that the overthrow of the regime of Bashar Assad by the hands of the Syrian people led by the
working class and for the purpose of establishing freedom, social justice, and
the preservation and deepening of independence of Syria would be a
revolutionary act that serves the people of Syria and of the entire region. The
toppling of the Syrian regime by the imperialist powers is neither in the
interest of the Syrian people nor in the interest of the people of the region.
Parties and organizations that have not learned from the experience of the occupations
of Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan and that are still repeating the theories of
“fight against all reactionary forces” and resolving “all social
contradictions” at the same time understand neither tactics nor revolutionary
politics. They are sunk in the Trotskyite quagmire of a “fight against two
reactionary poles”. These forces do not serve the people. On the contrary, they
sabotage the national and liberation struggles of the people against
imperialist aggression and invasion. It is the responsibility of the
revolutionary and progressive forces to resolutely expose these deviated and
decaying political currents that damage the movement under the name of
“communist” and “left”.
Today, the Western imperialists see that a significant section of
Syrians, due to the destructive actions of the dark force of Daesh, have lined up behind Assad’s regime and that not by
any means will the Syrian people “rise up” against the “dictator”. The U.S.
imperialists and their allies are forced to talk about peace (!), but in
practice, they beat the war drums on all fronts.