THE Syrian people and their supporters worldwide must be on the alert to see that the victories the Syrian masses and their army have won on the battlefield, driving back the US-UK organised hordes of Islamic and Al Qaeda fighters, are not lost at the conference table, in particular at the Geneva Conference, now planned to take place on January 22 2014.
The US Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday welcomed plans to hold the Syria ‘peace conference’, calling it the ‘best opportunity’ to impose a new transitional government on the country, ending the Assad regime.
Kerry added, deciding in advance on the composition of such a transitional government, ‘In order to end the bloodshed and give the Syrian people a chance to meet their long-deferred aspirations, Syria needs new leadership.’
He continued: ‘The conference on January 22 is the best opportunity to implement the Geneva communique and form a new transitional governing body through mutual consent.’ That is, the mutual consent of the imperialist powers plus any help that they can get from others.
The US Secretary of State continued that in the coming weeks, Washington would work with the United Nations and its partners in preparing the agenda for the talks, as well as the guest list. This is despite the defeat of their forces on the battlefield!
He however, conceded that the Syrian government cannot be kept out of the conference saying that the Syrian government and ‘opposition’ will ‘have to form their delegations’.
Kerry hinted that the new ‘reformed’ Iranian regime would now be on the ‘guest list’, stating: ‘Since foreign states have considerable influence on the factions waging war within Syria, they too have an important role to play.
‘To contain the growing threat from extremism and foreign fighters within Syria, and to ensure respect for Syria’s territorial sovereignty, we cannot delay the work of establishing a transitional government,’ he added.
On cue, the new ‘reforming’ Iranian regime has declared, through its foreign minister, that ‘Iran is ready to utilise all its political capacity and power, along with other regional countries, to help resolve the Syrian crisis, particularly the humanitarian dimension of the turmoil.’
Mohammad Javad Zarif made his statement at a meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Tehran on Monday.
UN spokesman Martin Nesirky, speaking for Ban Ki-moon, also said on Monday: ‘The secretary general expects that the Syrian representatives will come to Geneva with a clear understanding that this is the objective, and with a serious intention to end a war that has already left well over 100,000 dead, driven almost nine million from their homes, left countless missing and detained, sent tremors through the region and forced unacceptable burdens on Syria’s neighbours.’
He added: ‘The conflict in Syria has raged for too long. It would be unforgivable not to seize this opportunity to bring an end to the suffering and destruction it has caused.’
It is a matter of record that the responsibility for this slaughter rests with the US-UK bloc, Saudi Arabia and Qatar who have backed and financed an invasion of Syria by foreign Islamic and Al Qaeda fighters.
Nesirky continued that the goal of the conference: ‘Is the full implementation of the Geneva communiqué of June 30, 2012, including the establishment, based on mutual consent, of a transitional governing body with full executive powers, including over military and security entities.’
The Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov has also indicated that the Stalinist Bureaucracy is open for business.
Lavrov said on Monday in Rome – where Putin was meeting the Pope: ‘If the agreement on Iran is implemented, the reason named as a necessity to establish a missile defence system in Europe will drop away.’
NATO and the United States say the US missile defence system in Europe is designed to counter threats from Iran. The system has been a sore point in US-Russian relations for years. The Stalinists are hinting that a shift over missiles on its borders would be well appreciated and that there would be an appropriate response.
The Russian leadership has always stressed that it is not glued to Assad, and it has already negotiated away Syria’s stockpile of chemical warfare weaponry.
It would also be amenable to a ‘compromise’ – removing Assad – if its problems with having NATO missiles right along its borders were dealt with.
It is clear that the US is determined to keep Assad out of any transitional government that is to be imposed on Syria by the ‘mutual consent’ of the conference.
The Iranian bourgeoisie, having agreed to allow UN inspectors to visit its nuclear sites on a daily basis, may well want to prove just how useful it is for the US to have Iran as a friend. It may well prove amenable to forcing the Assad group out of the government, as the price for the US and UK looking more kindly on its domestic nuclear programme.
The Syrian people and army will make it clear that they will not surrender their government to the imperialists, and that only they can decide who rules Syria, and that elections for this purpose are due in 2014.
They must have the full support of the working people of the world.
