The Tudeh Party of Iran (TPI) released a statement on the developments in the Middle East region following Donald Trump’s visit.
ICP, 28 June 2017
The Tudeh Party of Iran released a statement regaring the developments in the Middle East region following Donald Trump’s visit.
The statement drew attention to the threats of the Defence Minister of Saudi Arabia towards Iran which was followed by Daesh attacks inTehran. It was not a coincedence that Rex Tillerson, the US Secretary of State, consequently declared US support for “regime change” in Iran. Meanwhile in Syria, the US forces started attacking the paramilitary forces backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran. In retaliation for the Daesh terrorist attacks, the IRGC fired six mid-range missiles from Iran targeting Daesh forces around Deir-al-Zour in eastern Syria. The Tudeh Party of Iran pointed out to the contradictory statements between Hassan Rouhani, the newly re-elected President, calling the missile attacks as a “national decision” of the the National Security Council and the IRGC who rejected Rouhani’s claim attributing the attack to the decision of Khamenei, the Supreme Religious Leader.
According to the Tudeh Party of Iran, there are two angles regarding the new tactics of the US under Trump administration. One is reviving the failed project of “making alternatives” to act as the “regime’s opposition” by utilising some of the forces opposed to Iran’s theocratic regime and who are adamantly pro-US in policy, such as the monarchists and the Iranian People’s Mojahedin Organisation (MEK). The other is, implementing an aggressive diplomacy in order to enable political-security leverage in the region through fanning the tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, under the mantra of “fighting terrorism”, and making divisions amongst the countries of the region under the pretext of the confrontation between “Shia” and “Sunni”.
The statement said that Trumps is trying to continue the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action started by Obama to put economic pressure on the country. Despite the apparent chaotic discourse of Trump, the political line of the new US administration has been designed along the interests of the most reactionary forces both in the US and also around the world. The similarity between the administrative structure of Trump and the Islamic theocratic regime of Iran indicates this fact. The statement also underlined that the leaders of both regimes are deceitful towards their people and would not hessitate to start a war ‘whether through proxy wars or direct clashes’. The theocratic regime of Iran, facing the aggression of the US regime, puts the ‘nation in the weakest international and economic situation’. Actually, the crises of the Iran’s regime, according to the statement, are caused by ‘the contradiction of the economic interests and the freedom-seeking demands of the Iranian people’.
In the statement, the Tudeh Party of Iran warned against some ‘state-affiliated reformist and transformed “left” forces’ who claim that there is no longer such an issue as “US imperialist policies”. Against the interpretation of Trump’s “America first” discourse as a retreat from ‘domineering policies’, the Tudeh Party of Iran stated this perception as ‘a dangerous mode of thought that denies the urgency of defending the national sovereignty against US bullying while deeming such a stance to be leftist’. The conformity of the state-affiliated reformists towards the political line of the Supreme Religious Leader in supporting the recent missile firing of the IRGC indicate that ‘if a situation develops which threatens national interests then the state-affiliated reformist will in no way resist the orders of the Supreme Leader and its suppression apparatus, i.e. the IRGC’. The statement also reminded that the ‘reformist’ Hassan Rouhani had who fervently criticised the missile activities of the IRGC during the election campaign had later shifted to supporting IRGC’s missile attacks in Syria.
The Tudeh Party of Iran ultimately emphasized the that matters in the region should be pursued through ‘peaceful and multilateral ways within the framework of the Charter of the United Nations and other conventions’. The Party called for the progressive and patriotic forces of Iran to ‘not let the interventionist policies and practices of the United States decide the destiny of our nation’ and to engage in joint cooperation in defence of the peace in the Middle East and the national sovereignty of Iran.