The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 5th October 2018
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 5th October 2018
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 5th October 2018
IRANIAN missiles pounded terrorist bases in eastern Syria on Monday following a deadly attack on a military parade in Ahvaz in southern Iran. At least 29 people were killed and more than 60 wounded when gunmen opened fire on a military parade held to mark the 38th anniversary of the start of the Iran—Iraq war. A number of the dead and wounded were civilians and ordinary spectators. Three of the gunmen were killed by Iranian security forces and the fourth later died of his wounds.
The ‘Patriotic Arab Democratic Movement in Ahvaz’, which claims to represent the Arab minority in southern Iran, and ISIS have both claimed responsibility for the attack. But the Iranians say the attack was instigated by “US-backed regimes in the region” and the “two Gulf countries linked to the USA and Mossad” are undoubtedly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Retribution soon followed with the launch of seven drones and six precision-strike ballistic missiles on several terrorist targets in Syria’s Abu Kamal region. The missiles, which had “death to America”, “death to Israel” and “death to the house of Saud” written on them, hit terrorist targets in the region still controlled by ISIS, and Iranians say that “many terrorists” were killed or wounded in the strikes.
The Iranians say this reprisal will make their enemies regret their actions. It also sent a clear message to the Americans whose troops are stationed in an illegal base only a few miles from the terrorist camps. The Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, stated that the Iranians hit a target very near the American position.
“Our aerospace forces sent you [the Americans] an important signal when they fired rockets at facilities three miles from you,” he said. The underground communist Tudeh Party of Iran condemned the terrorist act in Ahvaz in the strongest terms but warned that the reprisal raids in Syria could be used as “propaganda for regime change” by the US-led coalition.
Back at the United Nations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his allegations that Iran is working to develop nuclear weapons at what he called “secret” sites.
Netanyahu used a map and photographs of a building that he claimed was a “secret atomic weapons warehouse” in the Iranian capital, Tehran, to justify his false accusations during his speech at the 73rd annual session of the UN General Assembly in New York last week. But the site is actually a scrap-metal recycling centre. An Iranian worker at the plant told the media that the Israeli leader was “stupid” for believing it was a nuclear warehouse while the owner of a nearby carpet cleaning business said “there was nothing out of the ordinary” about the warehouse, and said that Netanyahu must have been fed disinformation to make him look a fool.
Iran’s foreign minister said Netanyahu was like the “the boy who cried wolf” but you “can only fool some of the people so many times”. Mohammad Javad Zarif called the Israeli premier “the boy who can’t stop crying wolf is at it again” recalling a similar anti-Iran speech by Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly in 2012, during which he used a cartoon bomb in an attempt to portray the Islamic Republic as a threat. Except in America, Netanyahu’s claims have fallen on deaf ears, with the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, saying the presentation failed to question Iran’s compliance with the nuclear agreement. Emboldened by the uncritical support of US imperialism under President Donald Trump, Netanyahu even threatened Iran with a nuclear attack during a speech at the regime’s secretive Dimona nuclear weapons facility. In response, Tehran has called on the world body to condemn Israel for the nuclear attack threat and bring the regime’s atomic weapons programme under its supervision.