By Michael Pröbsting
The Mullah regime in Iran has launched missiles strikes in Idlib (Syria), northern Iraq and Pakistan, resulting in a number of deaths and injuries. Teheran claims to have hit a “Mossad headquarter” in Erbil (Iraq) as well as various “terrorist organizations”. The regime says these strikes would be in retaliation for the barbarian terrorist attack in Kerman (Iran) a few days before which killed at least 89 people and for which Daesh (ISIS) has claimed responsibility.
This has provoked outrage both in Iraq and Pakistan as well as among the Anti-Assad rebels in Syria. The governments in Iraq and Pakistan recalled their ambassadors and Islamabad responded with counter-strikes in Iran. This development has resulted in a serious crisis of Iran’s relations with important neighbouring countries and carry the risk of further escalation or even a war (in the case of Pakistan which is a nuclear power).
We are not in a position to know the real identity of all targets which have been hit by Iranian missiles. It is true that the bourgeois government in the autonomous Kurdish province in Northern Iraq has a long history of collaboration with the Israeli state. However, we don’t know if the target was really Israeli-linked. But in other cases, it is clear that the targets of the Iranian missiles strikes where not linked with Israel, the US or Daesh. It is well-known that the US as well as Daesh control areas in Syria, but these are not in north-western Idlib but rather in eastern resp. central provinces of Syria. The targets in Pakistan seem to have been linked to Jaish al-Adl – a militant nationalist group fighting against the oppression of the Baloch minority in Iran. Likewise did the Pakistani strikes hit targets linked to Balochi nationalist guerrillas – the Balochistan Liberation Army and the Balochistan Liberation Front – as the Balochis are also oppressed in Pakistan.
In other words, Iran’s missiles strikes – contrary to their fraudulent rhetoric of the regime – have nothing to do Israel, the U.S. or Daseh. Teheran rather exploits the popular outrage at home in order to strike militant groups opposed to the Mullah regime and to demonstrate its military strength as a regional power.
The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) condemns the reactionary aggression of Iran. These acts contain not an inch of anti-imperialism or anti-Zionism but rather demonstrate the chauvinist desire of a regional power to expand its sphere of influence – although Iran is not an imperialist power but rather an advanced and industrialised capitalist semi-colony. We also denounce the heinous terror attacks of Daesh in Kerman.
We reiterate our support for the liberation struggle of the workers, women and national minorities in Iran who suffer from exploitation and oppression by the regime. Socialists in Iran fight for the revolutionary overthrow of the regime and its replacement by workers and poor peasants’ government based on popular councils and militias. Likewise, we continue our support for the rebels in Syria fighting against the tyranny of Assad, supported by Russian imperialism.
