IN 2019, SYRIA’S VICTORY IN MAARAT AL-NUMAN MADE IT CLEAR TO THE IMPERIALISTS AROUND THE WORLD (LED BY THE US AND NATO) THAT THEIR PLAN TO BREAK UP SYRIA AND BALKANIZE THE REGION WAS NO LONGER VIABLE. SINCE THEN, THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE UNITED STATES, UNITED KINGDOM, FRANCE, GERMANY, TURKEY AND OTHER NATO COUNTRIES HAVE CALLED NUMEROUS MEETINGS OF THE UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL. NOW THEY ARE MANIPULATING THE OPINION OF COUNTRIES TO VOTE FOR THE OPENING OF NEW SYRIAN BORDER CROSSINGS THROUGH WHICH THEY CHANNEL THEIR SO-CALLED HUMANITARIAN AID TO ANTI-ASSAD “REBELS”, AND NOT TO THE ASSAD GOVERNMENT THAT THEY WISH TO FAIL AND OVERTHROW

The United States, Turkey and Israel have been losing this war in Syria for at least ten years. Unable to countenance such a loss, they soldier on to consolidate their partial occupations of that country. The United States is opening a new base in Hasakah (northeast). Israel launches regular attacks on targets in Syria from the Golan which it stole from Syria in 1967, and along the northwest frontier, Turkey occupies swathes of Syrian territory which it calls “buffer zones”. These countries violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria, in direct contravention as much of international law as of the rules of the United Nations Charter – law and rules which they are supposed to be defending on the UN Security Council.

The Bashar al-Jaafari’s speeches, that we have just published separately, rightly denounce the US-Turkish occupation of Syria and the crimes committed there, the destruction of infrastructures, the plundering of all kinds of resources, the burning of agricultural crops. The representative of Syria at the United Nations asks the delegates of the Security Council to answer the question: “Do you support international law and the Charter of the United Nations, or do you support the American-Turkish-Israeli occupation of parts of my country?” He condemns the silence that replies to him, and the pressure exerted on the Security Council by those countries which are clearly trying to make Syria “a platform for NATO”.

The United Nations plays no impartial role here. The Security Council allows itself to be intimidated and even used by the most powerful countries represented on it. And the UN continues to sanction Syria in the midst of the pandemic. One of the sanctions specifies that Syria must not receive (even empty) bags of blood plasma! And still the United States goes on adding new sanctions (called Caesar). Such things show the absence of perspectives on the part of capitalism, and all its cowardice.

On June 17, the US Ceasar Syria Civilian Protection Act (passed in December 2019) was activated against the government of President Assad “for war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” committed in Hama and Maarat al-Numan (2012 and 2019). This law sanctions any company in the world that negotiates with Syria, whether in the field of industry, infrastructure, military maintenance, pharmacy or energy production. This is no punishment for ‘crimes against humanity’ but an act of vengeance against a country that has dared defeat world imperialism at Hama and Maarat al-Numan.

It is not in the interests of Russia and China to let Western capitalists turn Syria and the region into “a NATO platform.” People around the world are regaining confidence when they see that Russia and China intervene to help Syria. Bashar al-Jaafari himself uses his UN post to communicate his country’s determination not to become another Cyprus at the hands of NATO member Turkey. He denounces the delegations of the NATO countries who turn up at the Security Council to flout international law, the United Nations’s Charter and even their own resolutions.

During the last three months, Syria and Russia have systematically reconquered part of the Idlib territory occupied by the “rebels” (al Nusra, al Qaida, Isis, etc.). Then, in July this year, and in the middle of the scarcity, the devastation, the coronavirus epidemic and the “Caesar” sanctions, Syria held parliamentary elections. For the first time since 2011, polling stations opened not only in eastern Ghouta, but in the reconquered territories of the Idlib province. Presidential elections are scheduled for 2021.

China has just donated Covid-19 kits and the equivalent of $ 60 million for immediate use in health care, education and reconstruction. Russia is participating in the fight against the pandemic and in mitigating the effects of the sanctions. Despite this however, Syria remains occupied and at war. Turkey and the United States are stepping up their presence, and Israel regularly attacks the Iranian Revolutionary Guards present on Syrian soil at the invitation of the Syrian government.

Although Turkey invoked NATO Articles 4 and 5 against Syria – when Turkey lost 33 troops in Idlib in February – major NATO countries have yet to dare trigger a global confrontation over it. Without the support of Russia and China, Syria would have been treated by NATO like Yugoslavia or Iraq. In this matter, the combined power of China and Russia has become a factor for peace.

Syria has found the strength to thwart global imperialism in one of the latter’s biggest war projects in the Middle East. In this struggle, Iran, China and Russia prove to the world that peace can only be achieved through the defeat of world imperialism. Faced with the threat of imperialist war, the answer must be the creation of an organic global anti-imperialist front with Russia and China at its core.

Posadists Today – 15.8.2020

The featured picture shows a recent victory of Syrian soldiers in northeastern Syria.