The New Worker
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 30th October 2015
RUSSIAN and Syrian warplanes are pounding terrorist militia positions on all fronts as the Syrian army advances to drive ISIS, Al Qaida and Muslim Brotherhood gunmen out of their strongholds in parts of Aleppo and the Damascus countryside.
Hundreds of thousands of refugees are returning to their homes in the wake of the Syrian army’s victories and more and more gunmen are accepting the government’s amnesty and surrendering to the authorities.
Meanwhile Syria has dismissed imperialist media reports that Cuban and north Korean forces were now fighting alongside the Syrian army in the battle against ISIS. Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi categorically denied any presence of Cuban or Democratic Korean troops in his country saying that Russia is more than enough to fight terrorism.
And now Jordan, like Israel, has agreed to co-ordinate its operations with the Russian air-force — breaking ranks with imperialism in the war against terror in Syria and forcing the Americans and their Turkish and feudal Arab lackeys to respond more seriously to Russian efforts to end the conflict.
This week US imperialism agreed to accept Iranian participation in multilateral talks in Vienna on Syria. This the first time Iran — an ally of President Bashar al-Assad — has been invited to these talks which include the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Russia has called on all countries capable of contributing to the process of Syrian reconciliation to engage in dialogue. “Dialogue is underway,” Kremlin spokesperson Dimitry Peskov said.
“ Of course, we support the expansion of this dialogue and the participation in this dialogue of all countries that can contribute to Syrian conflict settlement and the fight against terrorist, extremist organisations,” Peskov told reporters, commenting on the upcoming Vienna talks in which Iran will participate.
This week Russian warplanes hit hundreds of ISIS and Al Nusra front targets across Syria destroying terrorist command posts, arms dumps, bunkers, pillboxes and mortar positions. But the Kremlin has dismissed as lies claims by the Syrian-American Medical Society that Russian aviation had bombed medical facilities and killed civilians and medical staff. Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said: “The true purpose of these organisations is to create unsourced information for designated media outlets to pick up.”
Over 800,000 refugees have returned to Syria since the start of Russia’s war on terror on 30th September. The Grand Mufti of Syria told members of a visiting Russian parliamentary delegation that many of the refugees, who had fled to Jordan, were going home following Syrian army victories on all fronts in the struggle against the sectarian militias that have spread death and destruction throughout Syria over the past four years.
Sheikh Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, the highest Sunni Muslim cleric in the country, called on Syria and Russia to engage in mutual support as multi- confessional states.
A staunch supporter of Bashar al Assad’s popular front government, the Grand Mufti, has long opposed to Islamic bigotry. He once told the German media: “I am Sunni in practice, Shia in allegiance. My roots are Salafi, and my purity is Sufi.” This, he said, is the type of international Muslim he is trying to mould: “There is no contradiction in being both Sunni and Shia. That’s how one’s Islam becomes complete.” One of his sons was killed in Aleppo in 2012 by terrorist hit-men paid by Turkey and Saudi Arabia.