The New Worker
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 27th January 2012
FEUDAL Arab rulers and their imperialist mentors stepped up their campaign to destabilise Syria and bring down its Baathist-led popular front government this week, with the Arab League call for the resignation of President Assad and further appeals to the United Nations for an international sanctions regime that can only lead to another Nato war.
But Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem brushed off the Arab League threat to refer the issue to the UN Security Council ? a move that could lead to tougher sanctions and imperialist intervention á la Libya and Iraq.
“If they go to (UN headquarters in) New York or the Moon, as long as we don’t pay their tickets, this is their business,” al-Moallem said at a news conference in Damascus.
He was reacting to an appeal by the oil princes’ Gulf Cooperation Council for the UN Security Council to take all “necessary measures” to force Syria to implement the Arab League’s ludicrous “peace plan” announced on Sunday to create a national unity government in two months.
The “plan” is essentially a call for the Baathists to pack up their bags and hand over power to the motley crew of reactionary Muslim Brothers and Nato agents who are behind much of the violence that has racked the country for the past ten months.
And it has been rightly dismissed by the Assad government as “flagrant interference” in Syria’s internal affairs.
The Syrian government has agreed to many of the demands of the street for reform and it is working on its own reform agenda that has broad support across the country. But the 10-month uprising in the country has never been that of peaceful protesters seeking change, but an imperialist conspiracy, channelling money, arms and militants to undermine Syrian sovereignty and bring down the Assad government in a violent campaign that has led to the deaths of over 2,000 members of the armed forces and security services.
suspended
The Arab League, which suspended Syrian membership last year, has been working hand in glove with the imperialists to bring down the Syrian government — a firm ally of Iran and a consistent defender of the legitimate demands of the Palestinian Arabs.
The League plan calls on Assad to step down to pave the way for a national unity government with the opposition within two months, which would then hold special parliamentary and presidential elections under Arab and international supervision.
Russia has made it clear it will once again veto any imperialist attempt to bulldoze another Libya-style resolution through the UN Security Council.
Russia, together with China, will block any move on the Security Council to endorse military intervention in Syria the Kremlin says.
“We are open to constructive proposals that go in line with the set task of ending the violence,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday but any new UN action could not justify force or “sanctions that were declared without any consultations with Russia or China”.