THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF IRAN. ISRAEL: WAR AND GENOCIDE
Previous Comment
The intensification of the war in the Middle East starting from the Zionist invasion of the Gaza Strip, the assassination of Iranian officials and the response attacks by Iran to «Israel» and by «Israel» Iran leads us to seek the opinion of the revolutionaries forces in Iran. This is the importance of the interview with the Communist Party of Iran.
As on other occasions that América Rebelde has interviewed the comrades, the CPI gives us an accurate vision of reality that, on this occasion, will revolve around geostrategic aspects and the role of imperialism in all of this. It will surely lead to future and new interviews.
What opinion does the Communist Party of Iran has about the genocide that “Israel” is carrying out against Palestine? Why do you think “Israel” has had this totally disproportionate response?
What has been happening in Gaza for more than seven months is nothing but a real genocide against the Palestinian people in both Gaza and West bank by the Israeli fascist government. The criminal war that has so far taken the lives of more than 35000 (thirty five thousands) people, most of whom children and women, injured more than 77000 and displaced more than 2 million people and has deliberately made hundreds of thousands of people face starvation, is not self-defense by Israel as western powers claim, but a real war crime and a genocide that is happening under full political, military, financial and media support of the west led by the United States.
Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister and his racist government, using the criminal attack of October 7th by Hamas as a pretext to launch a full attack against the Palestinians, has not been able to achieve its declared goals despite all the crimes it has committed during this period, despite carrying out a brutal war against defenseless people of Palestine. During this period, the Israeli war cabinet has taken the tactic of maximum destruction and killing, which is a sign of the impasse and helplessness of the Israeli government. This devastating war, in addition to having heavy costs for Israel, has also aggravated the internal crisis of Netanyahu’s government and has greatly increased the level of hatred and disgust towards the government inside and outside of Israel. The protests and pressure of public opinion worldwide against the genocide in Gaza have effectively put pressure on the racist government of Netanyahu, the American government and the European governments that support this crime.
The Islamic regime in Iran, as a fascist government, which has turned Iran into a slaughterhouse for the Iranian people in the last 44 years of its ideological and class rule, has brought about nothing but misery and destruction for the people of the region, especially for the people of Palestine by supporting its proxy forces financially and militarily. By paying billions of dollars to its proxy and reactionary forces in Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria and by fueling regional conflicts, the Islamic Republic has been in practice acting against the liberation of the Palestinian people as well as the progressive, socialist and militant forces of Palestine and the region.
In the meantime, the oppressed and defenseless people of Gaza, who are victims of the Israeli government’s genocide, want this criminal war to end as soon as possible. Why should the people who have no role in starting the war pay for it? The workers and the oppressed people of Palestine can change the balance of power in their favor not by relying on reactionary and terrorist Islamic movements and governments, nor on Arab governments and other capitalist powers, but only by their united and organized force and the support of their peers in Israel and the region and at the world level.
From a strategic point of view, what is at stake in this new stage of the “Israel” Palestine war?
If this war and occupation has created death and destruction for the working class and people of Palestine, it has been a blessing for the capitalists, the reactionary governments of the region and the arms dealers to accumulate more profits. The right-wing and racist government in Israel, immersed in political, economic and legitimacy crises, saw the attack and killing of Israeli civilians on October 7th as a historic opportunity to implement its fascistic agenda. The global capitalist blocs led by the US and Russian imperialism, which are fighting a proxy war in Ukraine, have brought the world closer to another world war by opening the war front in the Middle East and Palestine.
The share of the working class and the oppressed people of the region from all these is nothing but death and destruction. It is the workers’ children that are killed, starved and displaced. Even now where officially there is no world war going on, everyday we witness the attacks of the capitalist governments around the world on the social and democratic rights of workers and the toiling masses of the society. While we see that countries’ military expenses have been skyrocketing during recent years to trillions, the financial and military assistance of west countries to Ukraine has exceeded 200 billion, and their military, political and financial support for the Israeli government has been flowing in, on the other hand under the pretext of not having money, these same governments have carried out and continue to carry out their most brutal attacks on the livelihoods and living standards of workers and the low-income strata of society in the last two decades, causing inflation, unemployment, high prices, frozen salaries, rising poverty and hunger, unprecedented amount of refugees, rise of ultra-right and racist forces and so on. In order to justify these expenses and start the war, these governments have paved the way for the fascist and extreme right-wing forces to come to power, because these forces can brutally suppress all the growing dissatisfaction of the workers and their opposition to the huge military expenses and the consequences of the war.
On the other hand, we have also witnessed the intensification of the class struggle of workers and the deprived masses of society against these warmongering and attacks by capitalist governments on the global level. During this year, we have witnessed farmers’ protests in many European countries, strikes by train drivers, airport workers and public sector workers in Germany, teachers’ strikes in France, extensive and unprecedented strikes in Finland, massive demonstrations against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Germany, continued protests against the genocide of the fascist Israeli government in Gaza including students’ protests in US universities. These protests and labor struggles against the bourgeoisie and internal war mongers show that the workers know that their enemy is not the workers of other countries, but the main enemy is the capitalist system and the capitalists and their supporting governments.
What is the United States at stake in this war?
The war in Gaza more than any other time showed the hypocrisy and double standards of world capitalism led by the United States. The crimes in Gaza are being committed in front of the eyes of governments that falsely claim democracy and human rights, including the United States and the European Union, which, while giving the green light and money and war facilities to the Israeli government to commit such crimes, sometimes remind Israel: «Try to avoid civilian casualties.” and while they provide the Israeli fascist government and its army with weapons to kill Palestinians, they are crying crocodile’s tears for the victims of this war and are claiming that they are unable to even provide humanitarian aid for starving people in Gaza.
This war also showed the declining hegemony of the US in the world. While stuck in a war in Ukraine, following its scandalous retreat from Iraq and Afghanistan, we saw that neither its European nor Middle East joined its “Operation Prosperity Guardian” in the Red Sea against the Houthis, except the UK.
What effect has the war against Palestine had on Iran? I am referring to the working class, the revolutionary and reformist left, etc. Have there been demonstrations against the war?
The working class in Iran is engaged in an internal fight with one of the most criminal capitalist regimes in the world, that is the Islamic regime in Iran. After the “Woman, Life, Freedom” which shook the foundations of the Islamic regime and which has changed the power balance in favor of the women, workers and oppressed people of Iran, we have been witnessing thousands of labor protests and demonstrations by the workers, teachers, pensioners, nurses, political prisoners and other layers of the society. Women on the other hand have been defying all the reactionary laws and the gender apartheid of the regime and by throwing away their scarves and forced Islamic clothes have practically removed these laws across Iran. In the face of all this defiance and labor protests and strikes, the Islamic Republic has shown that it is not any more capable of doing anything to stop these changes and upheavals. The only tool remaining for the regime is to arrest workers and women and give political prisoners death penalties in a futile effort to intimidate the Iranian society and show that things are still under control. The tensions it creates in the region and its latest tension with Israel are to hide the political, social, economic and legitimacy crises it is facing inside Iran.
Workers and people’s masses in Iran have taken every chance to voice their protest and defiance of the regime’s destructive regional policies, and at the same the Israeli war against the Palestinians. In a latest statement by several Iranian independent labor and mass organizations titled “Covenant of organizations on the occasion of the First of May”, they voiced the position of the Iranian oppressed people and workers very clearly in this regard: “We strongly condemn the warmongering policies of the Islamic government, which has entered the phase of direct confrontation and continues to loot the people’s bread with the aim of survival of its system, and declare: You cannot push back people’s struggles by expanding the scope of the war. We also condemn the killing of the people of Gaza by Israel and the attacks of Hamas against the people of Israel.”
A few weeks ago “Israel” assassinated Iranian officials and Iran responded with a limited attack with 300 drones. Why do you think “Israel” attacked Iran knowing that this would increase or expand the war against Palestine?
The massive missile and drone attacks of the Islamic Republic of Iran on April 14, 2024 against Israel and the destruction of these missiles and drones one by one, and the propaganda hype surrounding them, were all part of a pre-planned scenario that had been arranged by the top officials of the Islamic Republic in Iran and the commanders of the IRGC in indirect negotiations with the US where they had reached an agreement on how to implement it. The full readiness of the Israeli, American and British Air Force fighters to destroy the drones and missiles launched by the Islamic Republic was also a part of this scenario. On the other hand, the Israeli counter-attack was also a show that had been planned in coordination with the US and its allies. Both the regimes in Iran and Israel needed to go through this show to save their faces.
The fact is that the Islamic Republic is facing a deep crisis inside Iran. The workers and the oppressed masses as the victims of the current situation inside Iran have long started a decisive battle with the regime of the Islamic Republic. The 2017 and 2019 mass uprisings and the revolutionary movement of Women, Life, Freedom in 2022 have been the battlefields that have shaken the foundations of the Islamic Republic. The regime of the Islamic Republic does not have a safe front inside Iran because if it enters into a direct war with Israel, the labor movement and other protest movements will not only not be intimidated by war conditions, but will expand their struggles to bring down the capitalist Islamic regime, for this reason, the regime of the Islamic Republic does not consider the expansion of war and direct confrontation with Israel in line with its interests and the survival of the Islamic system in the current situation. The real enemy and threat that is facing the regime and threatening its survival is not the Israeli government, but the women in the streets of Tehran, the pensioners that are protesting every day across Iran and the striking workers that are protesting on a daily basis.
On the other side, the government of Israel, which has not achieved its military goals after seven months of war and crime in Gaza, has become more disgraced and isolated at the international level than ever before, and is facing an acute political crisis internally, needs the expansion of the war in order to hide its military failures in Gaza by hitting Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Guards of the Islamic regime and intensifying pressure on its sworn enemies at the regional level. Netanyahu’s problem is that the tone of America’s European allies in NATO has changed to some extent under the pressure of world public opinion regarding the policies and approach of the Israeli government, so it likes very much to drag the US as well into the current war, something that is not the priority of the US administration at the moment.
This war, what relationship does it have with the inter-imperialist crisis that has been developing for quite some time? What effects could it have on the design of the New World Order or New Imperialist Order?
The war in Ukraine as proxy war between US and Russian imperialism, the war in Gaza where the occupier is heavily supported militarily and financially by the Western powers, the confrontations in the Red Sea, the conflicts in different African countries as well as the tensions between the United States and China are all part of a confrontation that is happening between old and new powers over shaping the New World Order and who will be the next hegemony.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during the 75th anniversary of the alliance said: «Europe is now facing a war on a scale that we thought had already joined history.» and continued that «we know that our security is not regional, but global, and the war in Ukraine and the support of Asian countries such as China, Iran and North Korea for Russia clearly show this.» By saying these words, he confirmed that the war in Ukraine, in Gaza and in other parts of the world are all parts of the war of imperialist powers against each other.
In practical terms, what is the proposal of the Communist Party of Iran in this new context?
The Communist Party of Iran considers it its duty to stand with the oppressed people of Palestine and support the struggles and resistance of the militant people of Palestine for ending the occupation of their lands, the unconditional return of the refugees to their homes, the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, the end of the long-standing suffering and displacement of Palestinian people and the formation of an independent Palestinian state.
As said earlier, the Palestinians can not rely on reactionary and terrorist Islamic movements, nor on the reactionary governments of the region or other capitalist powers for their liberation. They can only liberate themselves by their united and organized fight and struggles and the support of their peers in Israel and the region and at the world level.
We also believe that what is vital is that in order to stop the war madness of warmongers whether in Gaza or Ukraine or any other part of the world, the global anti-war movement led by the working class must be armed with a socialist vision and leadership and that the working class cannot put an end to the war or defend its interests and livelihood without undermining the power of capital and controlling all resources and production centers of the society.
May 3rd 2024 
