Statement of the Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan) on the
Recent Developments in the Middle East Region
The assassination of Qassem Soleimani by the U.S. and the
Iranian and the world response to it, has prompted our Party to reaffirm its
principled stance on the matter and investigate the effects of this U.S.
terrorist action on Iran and the world.
General Soleimani was a commander who voluntarily went to
war against the Iraqi’s military invasion of Iran, defended the territorial
integrity of the country, and gradually became a prominent military strategist.
Qassem Soleimani also took the lead in the fight against ISIS, especially at
the time when the U.S. backed terrorists made their way to Baghdad with the
hope of coming to Tehran. General Soleimani defeated the murderous attempts of
ISIS by establishing a united front and founding the para-military group Hashad
al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) in Iraq.
Qassem Soleimani, as an experienced military man and a
diplomat, was a popular and respectable army general not only to a large
section of the Iranian society, but also to the entire region and many world
leaders.
According to documents released by the international
press and by the statement of Iraqi Prime Minister Adel al-Mahdi, Soleimani had
traveled to Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government in order to
facilitate negotiation between Iran and Saudi Arabia. In a press interview,
al-Mahdi unmasked the U.S. lies that "We had the exact information that
Soleimani had come to assassinate the Americans in Iraq".
Al-Mahdi declared: "For the record, I say that at
eight o'clock in the morning, I had a meeting with General Soleimani. I wanted
to give him the Saudi letter that was about the developments in Iraq and peace
in the region."
The fact is that the Iranian government has long been
trying to put an end to the turmoil that the U.S. has created in the region.
U.S. imperialism coming from 8,000 kilometers away has built dozens of military and terrorist
bases around Iran, has occupied the territories of the region, is plotting and
sabotaging against the formal, legal and legitimate governments of the
region, and is causing tension in the
Middle East. The Policy of the Iranian government in the region includes the
removal of tension in the region, prevention of war and destruction, demands
for the withdrawal of foreign troops from the region, and the establishment of
a partnership agreement with the Persian Gulf states that guarantees security
in the region. If implemented, these policies would primarily serve the
national interest and the interest of the working class and the people of Iran.
Israel is the only country that benefits from the chaos
in the region and wants to interrupt any attempts at reconciliation,
cooperation, and peace. Continued provocative Israeli actions in Iraq, the
bombing of Syria, targeting Iranian ships in the Red Sea with its missiles and
accusing Saudi Arabia for it, and other Israeli acts of sabotage in the Persian
Gulf are in the service of preventing the Arab countries from getting close to
Iran. This proximity is of strategic importance in the region, reinforcing the
Palestinian Liberation Movement, curtailing Israeli so that it fails to exploit
divisions in the region for the benefit of its own expansionist and
tension-creating goals. That is why political analysts reiterate that Trump has
been used by his Zionist adviser and has fulfilled Israel's wish without
thinking about the consequences of his actions. In the assassination of Qassem
Soleimani, you see the filthy hands of Israel Zionism.
The Party of
Labour of Iran (Toufan) strongly condemns the Trump–ordered assassination of
Qassem Soleimani, a well-known Iranian official, who had traveled to Iraq for
negotiation with Saudi Arabia. This is a manifestation of state terrorism in
the world. This criminal act by Trump is a clear violation of the rights of
nations, universally recognized norms and standards, and a trampling on
achievements of humanity and global agreements.
The right to national sovereignty is a democratic right
that all countries of the world are entitled to regardless of ideology, the
size of country, the nature of state, religion, race, language, and so on.
President Trump, by an assassination order, has thrown this important
achievement of mankind into a landfill. All countries in the world, with the
exception of Israel, condemned this terrorist act. Trump’s hideous crime was condemned
by the UN Secretary General.
National sovereignty or democratic rights are the rights
that are independent of the nature of governments. Democratic rights are not
divisible. Only tyrants and fascists do not recognize these universal rights in
the present world. The rights of men and women are equal whether they are from
working-class or from the bourgeoisie. This is also true of the national
sovereignty and rights that our country Iran has. One cannot use the form and
ideology of the government in Iran to deny the rights that belong to Iran as a
country with a long history.
When the news of the assassination of Qassem Soleimani
reached Iran, the society boiled over because our awakened nation did not
condone the humiliation and violation of Iran's national sovereignty. Millions
of people took to the streets of many cities to protest and participate in the
funeral procession. A nation that came to the streets for the love of its
country in November 2019 and lost its sons and daughters in the fight against
the repressive regime of the Islamic Republic, refused to undermine the
interests of his country for the sake of revenge and vengeance on the ruling
regime and to dance for Trump’s act of terrorism. The punishment of the Iranian
government for its crimes must be determined only by the Iranian people, not by
Trump or Netanyahu. This message was sent by the Iranian nation to all the
world's bullies and to the Iranian sellout opposition. The people of Iran love
their country, are full of national pride, differentiate Iran from the Islamic
Republic, and are ready to carry out a unified resistance to any foreign
aggression.
Everyone heard Trump‘s announcement that he will destroy
Iran's cultural heritage. This is the very same man that labeled the Iranian people
as terrorists. Immediately after the announcement was made, the pro-U.S. and
pro-Israeli Iranian opposition, who had realized the extent of the criminality
of the announcement, started to rephrase it. They claimed that Trump did not
even understand his words and that he meant “religious sites“, and the
"Qom seminary". To say that Iranian centuries-old mosques are not
part of Iran's cultural heritage: how much a brain must be infected to think
so! This outrageous claim was declared by the Iranian mercenary opposition to
deceive the public when all press in the world criticized Trump's announcement
and defended Iran's cultural heritage and when UNESCO chief at the United
Nations declared it criminal act of war.
Not
war, No sanction, No military aggression
Our
Party opposes the destruction and disintegration of Iran and fights against the
complicity of Iranian mercenary opposition with imperialism and Zionism.
Setting the account with the capitalist regime of the Islamic Republic is the
duty and the work of the Iranian people. Opposing sanctions and war does not
mean accepting humiliation. The Iranian regime is said to be seeking talks with
the United States behind the scenes. This is a bourgeois principle of diplomacy
in the world and it is not a big problem here. What matters is what comes out
of this compromise. If the opposition to the assassination of Qassem Soleimani
and the pressure of Iran and the world on the United States lead to the
implementation of the nuclear deal, lifting of sanctions, and the return of
Iran's illegally seized assets, it would naturally be in the interest of
Iranian people, but if these negotiations take place for the purpose of killing
time and violating Iran's rights, it will be considered a treacherous act by
the regime of the Islamic Republic. Today, the U.S. imperialists and their allies have
become increasingly isolated in the world and in the region. If the United
States of America does not give concession in today's conditions, it will never
give any concession, and the risk of war will increase. The interest of our
homeland is to retreat so long as the gains listed above are achieved, and if
not, all the interests of imperialism in the region must be endangered.
What
is to be done?
The
first step towards a political solution to the current impasse in our country
is to form a popular, revolutionary front. The formation of such fronts is only
possible through drawing a transparent demarcation between friends and enemies
of the Iranian people. In our view, this transparency separates the ranks of
those who go hand in hand with the imperialists from the forces loyal to the
people. Any economic sanction and military intervention should be condemned.
Neoliberal economic policies, corruption and embezzlement, and political
repression should be opposed. Any political change must be considered an
internal task of the Iranian people. The tie between the struggle for the
democratic rights of workers and toilers and for social justice and the
struggle against imperialism and its mercenaries defines the identity and
character of such a revolutionary and popular alternative.
There
is no doubt that the assassination of Qassem Soleimani and the danger of a
foreign war has affected the class struggle and has given the regime a break,
but these effects are short-lived. Deprived of their rights and faced with
poverty, discrimination, and repression, the masses will rise again. Foreign
threats have always been used by the authorities of the Islamic Republic to
unite the people behind their power. These threats justify the concentration of
power in the hands of a few authoritarians and transform society into a
war-time society. In fact, the threats by imperialists objectively serve the
continuation of despotism in Iran and reinforce the regime of Velayat-e Faqih
(the rule of Supreme Leader).
The
elimination of external danger and lifting of illegal sanctions are in favor of
the movement of workers and toilers, and they provide the conditions for the
advancement of the class struggle.
Shooting Down of the passenger aircraft
The
warmongering, aggressive, tension-creating, law-violating policies of U.S.
imperialism have created an atmosphere of insecurity around the world. No one
anywhere in the world enjoys the legal security and universal protection of the
United Nations. Language of force and bullying are the last word. A valid law
in the world has become the Genghis law: he who has more power has more right.
This insecurity and tension was the rule not only in the Iran-Iraqi airspace
and when an Iranian official in Iraq was assassinated or when a Ukrainian
passenger aircraft in Iran was hit by missiles.
In 2014,
a Malaysian passenger aircraft also became a victim of the NATO terrorist
atmosphere in the conflict zone of Ukraine, an atmosphere which was the product
of clear aggression and interference by NATO and the U.S. in Ukrainian internal
affairs and the creation of a warlike atmosphere.
The
catastrophe of downing the Ukrainian aircraft in Iran, which also killed many
of our compatriots, is neither the first nor the last in the tension-escalated
climate that is the product of U.S. policy. The American administration is
directly responsible for these catastrophic events. As far as the regime of Iran
is concerned, the lack of transparency and lying about the event has made many
Iranians angry. These liars will never regain the trust of the Iranian people.
The People of Iran worry when they see that the American, Canadian, and
Australian intelligence agencies knew all the secrets of the regime in this
event even sooner than many high-ranking authorities. The Iranian people have a
right to fear such insecurity; they want to know whether the regime is
competent or only boastful when they claim to have the ability to defend Iran's
airspace against U.S. cruise missiles. The people have the right to demand the
resignation of the regime's incompetent Islamic officials. The great Iranian
nation is prepared to fight against U.S. aggression despite the domestic
repression it has been facing for 40 years. Imperialists are also exploiting
the chronic inadequacy and lies of the regime. As the repetition of the Syrian
experience, the British ambassador participates in a student protest and
President Trump sends a Farsi message to students telling them to count on the
support of the U.S. administration. It is unclear what mysterious hands have
informed the British ambassador so that he can participate in the protest. Now we have to wait for the work of
imperialist hand-picked sharpshooter agents in Iran!
Our Party
calls for the resignation of the incompetent officials. We call for a public
trial for these officials with the presence of world-wide mass media. The high
tension and insecure atmosphere created by Trump administration that resulted
in the tragedy of downing the Ukrainian aircraft must be brought to light in
the courtroom. Assassinations by the imperialists and their lack of respect for
human life must be exposed in a public tribunal. We strongly condemn the U.S.
intervention and Trump's speech and the shameless presence of the British
ambassador in anti-regime demonstrations in Iran. These interventions damage
the democratic struggles of the Iranian people for freedom because they are
hypocrisies and sow the seeds of division and repression. The people of Iran,
not President Trump or the British ambassador, must seek justice and force the
regime of the Islamic Republic to respond to their demands. Imperialist
conspiracies aimed to destroy or disintegrate Iran must be exposed and
discarded.
We support the revolutionary struggle of the Iranian
people against the capitalist rule of the Islamic Republic for the freedom,
democracy, social justice, and respect for the right of national sovereignty
and territorial integrity of Iran!
We demand that the liar and braggart Iranian
authorities be brought to an open trial, and the role of the U.S. imperialist
in breaking international law and creating hostilities be exposed!
We demand an end to the presence of imperialist forces
and to interference in the internal affairs of the countries in Middle East!
We say “No” to war, sanctions, and to all aggression
against the countries in the Middle East!
The U.S.
imperialists must keep their hands off Iran and Iraq!