ON FRIDAY January 3rd, the USA carried out a terrorist drone attack on Baghdad airport, murdering General Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU).
It was a mafia-style murder – with Soleimani a sitting duck – visiting Iraq for a well publicised meeting with his safety guaranteed by Iraq’s government.
In fact, it was part of a joint operation, the other half being a drone attack on a revolutionary guard leader in the Yemen, which failed.
Trump was proud of his actions and told the world that in the event of any Iranian retribution he would organise an attack on 52 Iranian targets. He spelt out that this would be one attack for every one of the US officials who were held hostage in the US embassy in Iran in 1979, an action that signalled the end of the Shah and the end of Anglo-US domination of Iran.
Trump had the Iranian revolution in his sights. Iran did hit back. Last Wednesday, in the early morning it launched a missile attack on two American bases in northern Iraq.
The Iranian government told the Iraqi government in advance of the attack, and the US knew it was coming, enabling it to ensure that none of its troops were killed. In fact, the Iranian leadership said it was the bases and not the troops that were under attack. Iran was braced for a US response, and a massive attack on Tehran was expected.
It was under these conditions that the Ukraine, which has previously experienced a passenger plane being shot down over its own territory, decided not to follow the lead of BA, which was requested by the UK government not to fly over Iran.
The Ukrainian plane left Tehran just hours after the Iranian attack on the US bases, when all Iranian defences were awaiting a US onslaught. It was mistaken for a US vehicle and shot down.
This tragic event has now been seized on by Trump who has, meanwhile, heaped more sanctions onto Iran, and has sent his greetings to the Iranian right wing to come out on the streets to lay the basis for US military intervention. Trump tweeted in both Farsi and English that his ‘administration’ will continue to stand with the protesters.
The latest round of US sanctions announced by the US last Friday will target eight senior Iranian officials as well as the country’s construction, manufacturing, textiles, mining, aluminium, copper, iron and steel industries.
Those sanctions mean ‘we will cut off billions of dollars of support’ to the Iranian government, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a joint news conference with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the White House.
On Saturday, US President Donald Trump Tweeted a message of support for a group of university students who protested in Tehran following Iran’s accidental downing of the Ukrainian airliner.
‘To the brave, long-suffering people of Iran: I’ve stood with you since the beginning of my Presidency, and my administration will continue to stand with you. We are following your protests closely, and are inspired by your courage,’ Trump Tweeted.
He fooled nobody! One Twitter user responded by saying that Trump cannot claim to support Iranians after he had imposed sanctions targeting them.
A Twitter user spoke of her friend who was ill and died because of Trump’s boycott on drugs, calling on the US to leave the Middle East. ‘He says he has been with the Iranian people from the beginning, yes with severe sanctions. My friend was ill and died because of Trump’s boycott of drugs. Get out of the Middle East — mahtab (@mmahdavi18) January 12, 2020.’
Even the British ambassador has taken to the streets to try to support the pro-imperialist demonstrators.
Workers in the UK and USA must support the Iranian people and revolution. Their enemy is at home! They must bring down the Trump and Johnson regimes, getting rid of capitalism and imperialism to go forward to socialism.
It is time for the workers of the world to unite to smash capitalism and imperialism!
