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The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

Iran defiant with no end in sight to conflict

by our Arab Affairs correspondent

Oil and energy markets remained volatile this week as hopes for an end to the crisis in the Middle East evaporated with the news of yet another clash between American and Iranian forces in the Persian Gulf and no end in sight to the conflict in south Lebanon. An Israeli air assault on Beirut was called off after a shouting match between Trump and Netanyahu that ended with the American president telling the Israeli leader to call it off in no uncertain terms and the Iranians breaking off all negotiations with the USA following a tit for-tat exchange of rockets and drones, with Americans hitting Iranian positions in the Gulf to which the Islamic Republic responded by taking out US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain.

Some tankers, whose owners have agreed to pay the toll the Islamic Republic is now demand ing, are now passing through the Strait of Hormuz – others play cat-and-mouse with Iranian patrol boats as they try to scuttle through the mine-fields under the dubious leadership of the US navy but most remain stranded, as they have been for months, while the double blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues to throttle the critical choke-point that accounted for over 20 per cent of seaborne oil trade prior to the US-Israeli war against Iran.

Meanwhile, rumours are circulating in the Arab media that the Iranians told the Pakistanis last month that if things got worse they would test an atomic device of their own in the Persian desert as a warning to the Americans.

The cease-fire is, just about, still in place. But the 60-day extension and the Memorandum of Understanding that was supposed to end the deadlock has been put on hold with the Iranians insisting that there will be no talks with the Americans until the Israelis pull out of southern Lebanon. That may be a long time a-coming.

Although Israel has spread death and destruction throughout southern Lebanon forcing thousands of civilians to flee to relative safety beyond the Litani river, the Zionists have paid a high price for their piffling gains across the border. Over the last three months scores of Israeli tanks have been hit by the Lebanese resistance. The Israelis say some 30 of their troops have been killed and 1,180 others wounded The Trump administration clearly wants to end the war with Iran that has gone so badly wrong for the imperialist camp. But Netanyahu, robbed of glory by Iran and publicly humiliated by his master Donald Trump, is looking for cheap victories in Lebanon to boost his standing in the run-up to Israeli elections that may decide his political future. Trump’s problem is that he’s still not prepared to enter into realistic negotiations to end the fighting. Although some willing tools in Lebanon are prepared to accept peace at any price with Israel those that count, such as Hezbollah, are not. The American “peace proposal” called for a truce that would force the resistance out of southern Lebanon but not requiring an equally unconditional Israeli withdrawal. It’s been rejected by Hezbollah and dismissed by the Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament as a “rigged” agreement in favour of Israel and one that failed to establish a genuinely reciprocal withdrawal framework. FUND in the fighting. The partisans say the true figure is much higher. Whatever, there’s no doubt that the resistance, led by the Hezbollah militia, is beating back the invaders – paying them back in their own coin with drone and missile attacks that have forced thousands of Israelis to abandon their settlements in northern Israel.

The Trump administration clearly wants to end the war with Iran that has gone so badly wrong for the imperialist camp. But Netanyahu, robbed of glory by Iran and publicly humiliated by his master Donald Trump, is looking for cheap victories in Lebanon to boost his standing in the run-up to Israeli elections that may decide his political future. Trump’s problem is that he’s still not prepared to enter into realistic negotiations to end the fighting.

Although some willing tools in Lebanon are prepared to accept peace at any price with Israel those that count, such as Hezbollah, are not. The American “peace proposal” called for a truce that would force the resistance out of southern Lebanon but not requiring an equally unconditional Israeli withdrawal. It’s been rejected by Hezbollah and dismissed by the Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament as a “rigged” agreement in favour of Israel and one that failed to establish a genuinely reciprocal withdrawal framework.