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The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

No war – no peace in the Middle East

by our Arab Affairs correspondent

A tumultuous end to a turbulent week that began with a foul-mouthed rant from Donald Trump threatening to exterminate the Iranians if they didn’t immediately end their blockade of the Persian Gulf and ending with the Americans agreeing to a two-week truce to enable peace talks to begin in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

The finance gurus of the Western world say that the prospect of the imminent collapse of Wall Street and the City of London forced Trump to back down. Trump’s people somewhat belatedly claim that it was their demented leader’s threats that brought the Iranians to the negotiating table. Others believe that Americans backed down after the failure of their botched raid into Iran that led to the loss of several troop-carrier transport planes and a number of helicopters that was rapidly followed by a further set-back when US Special Forces despatched to kidnap Iranian nuclear scientists to use as bargaining counters in future negotiations was foiled with the help of Chinese security guards.

Whatever the reason for the climb-down the Americans were certainly forced to accept the Islamic Republic’s 10-point plan to end the war. An uneasy calm hovers over the Persian Gulf as US vice-president JD Vance and Trump’s chief negotiators fly to Pakistan for top-level talks with Iranian leaders. But the Persian Gulf is still closed to all but the handful of friendly countries that have agreed to recognise Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz.

These high-level talks follow days after the USA and Iran agreed to a Pakistan-mediated two-week ceasefire and will be held exactly six weeks after the USA and Israel launched their illegal war on Iran with the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a number of other top leaders on 28th February.

The truce applies to all fronts but the guns still blaze as the Israelis, enraged at being frozen out of the secret talks that preceded the truce, lash out in a frenzied new offensive to create a new buffer zone in south Lebanon while Hezbollah and north Yemeni missiles pay them back with waves of attacks on targets in northern Israel.

Following the Pakistani-brokered cease-fire deal between Iran and the USA, Hezbollah called a truce with Israel. But Israel broke the agreement within hours with massive bombing raids on Beirut and southern Lebanon on Wednesday. The Americans, clearly fearful of an immediate return to all-out war with Iran, are putting pressure on the Israelis to climb down. So Israel now says it wants peace talks with the Lebanese government.

But Hezbollah vows to keep on fighting until the last invaders are driven out. “The resistance will continue until the last breath” Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem said on Friday. “Together – as a state, army, people, and resistance – we will defend the country, restore its sovereignty, and expel the occupier.”

Meanwhile in Syria a new front is emerging as the Muslim Brotherhood mobilises its followers to take to the streets to demand a jihad against the Israelis who occupy the Syrian Golan Heights and continue to brutally suppress the Palestinians. The Brotherhood’s militias helped bring down the Assad government in 2024 but they’ve been largely frozen out of power by the Saudi-backed sectarian militias that now hold sway in Syria. So have the Turks who played a major part in Assad’s downfall but got so little in return when the Golani gang and their American, Saudi and Israeli friends moved into Damascus.

The Muslim Brothers and their Turkish allies want what they believe is their legitimate share of power in the new central government of Syria. They can count on the support of Turkey whose troops still control parts of northern Syria and while few believe the Brotherhood militias are capable of launching an offensive against Israel, no-one doubts their ability to take over large parts of Syria if their demands are not met.