THE WEBSITE of Press TV, the official Iranian English language news site, was seized by the US government on Tuesday, in what amounts to a declaration of war against Iran and all who oppose American imperialism.
In all, 33 websites were taken down, including al-Masirah TV, a Yemeni English language news site that supports the struggle of the Houthi people.
The Yemen Solidarity Council (YSC) condemned ‘the deliberate silencing of the Yemeni voice by the American regime’ adding that it was ‘not surprised’ by the seizure as it ‘comes from those that have supervised the most heinous crimes against our people’, and that it ‘reveals, once again, the falsehood of the slogans of freedom of expression and all the other headlines promoted by the United States of America, including its inability to confront the truth.’
In a response on Twitter, Press TV stated: ‘In what seems to be a coordinated action, a similar message appears on the websites of Iranian and regional television networks that claims the domains of the websites have been “seized” by the United States government.’
News websites throughout the Middle East were taken over and closed down by the US, including Iraqi and the Palestinian site, Palestine Today, which reports to the world the atrocities committed by the Zionist Israeli regime against the people of Gaza.
Even the BBC was moved to comment on this unprecedented move by the US government to close down the news stations of another country saying: ‘The seizure of another country’s top-level domain – such as Iran’s .ir – could potentially be seen as a violation of sovereignty.’
No ‘potentially’ about it! The US has openly declared war against Iran, the Houthis and the Palestinian people.
While US officials went on about these news sites being the means for spreading ‘disinformation’ throughout the world, their real crime is speaking out about the murderous wars waged for imperialist domination and alerting the working class of the world to the crimes committed.
The seizure notice, issued by the US Department of Justice, actually invoked a law governing presidential authority in dealing with ‘unusual and extraordinary threat; declaration of national emergency’.
Press TV and Palestine Today are ‘extraordinary threats’ to US national security and closing them is tantamount to a declaration of national emergency!
This is just a step towards bombing Iran and giving the green light to Israel to try to crush Gaza. Imagine the reaction of the imperialist powers if another country closed down their own propaganda outlets like CNN or the BBC on the justifiable grounds that these were just the mouthpieces for their ruling class.
After all, it was these ‘champions of truth’ that ceaselessly pumped out the lies about ‘weapons of mass destruction’ used to justify the murder of hundreds of thousands across the region from Iraq to Libya.
This latest war drive gives a lie to the idea that Joe Biden represents a new less war-like approach by US imperialism, who, unlike his predecessor Trump, would engage in negotiations not sanctions and assassinations.
In fact, with all the sanctions imposed by Trump having failed to break the resolve of Iran, Biden is stepping up the war drive, and in closing down the legitimate official news sites (a step even Trump pulled back from), he is declaring open season for the US military throughout the Middle East.
Biden can count on the support of America’s faithful imperialist allies in Britain and France, along with its client state of Israel and the reactionary Saudi monarchy.
These seizures are the opening shots in a new intensive drive by US imperialism and its allies to re-order the region by attempting to destroy Iran and the Palestinians and establish complete control over the vast wealth of the region for exploitation by capitalism.
The working class of the world, especially in the US and UK, must give its full support to Iran, the Palestinians and all the masses in the region fighting against imperialist domination.
The enemy of the working class is not Iran but the ruling class at home, and the way to end all imperialist wars is for workers to seize power and put an end to imperialist wars for good.
