By Prof. JOSE MARIA SISON
Chairperson, International League of Peoples' Struggle

We,  the International League of Peoples' Struggle, condermn in the  strongest terms the duplicitous scheme of the US and NATO in instigating, funding  and arming the so-called Syrian National Council and Free Syrian Army to seek the violent overthrow of the Assad government in Syria  and at the same time pushing a “peace plan” and then a “transitional government” under the auspices of the UN in  order to politically outmanuever the Assad government and the anti-imperialist and democratic forces.

The US and NATO are hell-bent on  effecting  a regime change  by escalating the war efforts of the mercenary “rebel forces” and exerting various economic and political pressures with the use of  the UN and puppet regimes in the region in preparing for an all-out imperialist war of aggression as in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.  The Western corporate media are part and parcel of the imperialist war machine in moulding international public opinion to justify this criminal conspiracy.

The imperialist powers headed by the US  detest  the Assad government  for asserting national sovereignty and independence, particularly against the US-Zionist combine, and want to  replace said government with a puppet regime closely aligned with the imperialists’ hegemonic policy in the region.  Burhan Ghallioun, a leading member of the imperialist funded Syrian National Council has promised to open up Syria to the West, end Syria’s strategic alliance with Iran which includes support for the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance to Israel and bring Syria closer to the arch-reactionary Arab puppet regimes.   

Turkey is taking the lead as the US proxy in the war against the Assad government.  It is providing the mercenary Free Syrian Army with rear bases close to the Syrian border where French and British special forces are providing training to “rebel” fighters.  Weapons seized from the arsenals of the late Muammar Gaddafi are being brought in to the military bases in Turkey by unmarked NATO planes.  The so-called Free Syrian Army is funded by governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar.  These two countries are playing the same shameful role they played in the criminal imperialist operation against the Gaddafi government.

The Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davitoglu, has said in public that Turkey is ready to attack Syria as soon as there is agreement among the Western governments to do so.  The naked aggression would be justified by the so-called “responsibility to protect” doctrine that has now become the standard pretext of the imperialists in trampling on the national sovereignty of countries.

The Western corporate media has stepped up its campaign of spreading lies about so-called atrocities by the Assad government. The famous “Homs massacre” attributed by Western governments and echoed by the Western media to the Syrian Army has turned out to be the handiwork of the armed “rebels”.  A rebel commander Abu Rami has admitted to Spiegel Online that his death squads had executed more than 200 people in the city of Homs.

Just before Kofi Annan made his scheduled visit to Syria, news spread of a massacre of 108 people in the city of Houla on May 25 that included women and children.  Western governments were quick to condemn the Assad government and expelled Syrian diplomats from their countries.  The UN Security Council without any investigation similarly denounced the Syrian government.  It later turned out that 700 armed fighters of the mercenary Free Syrian Army had carried out the massacre of families suspected of being loyal to Assad.

Annan in a public speech has called the Houla massacre the “tipping point.”  The US and NATO have used the massacre in Houla to work more blatantly than ever before  for the overthrow of Assad.  They are no longer hiding the fact that the CIA is now active in southern Turkey delivering weapons and communications equipment to the mercenary Free Syrian Army.

Turkey has started to make provocations that could produce the pretexts for outright aggression.  The shooting down by Syrian air defenses of a Turkish military jet that the Turkish government subsequently admitted to have “accidentally strayed” into Syrian airspace is now being used by the US and NATO in their sabre-rattling and war preparations.

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) resolutely supports  the broad masses of the people  and the anti-imperialist and democratic forces of Syria  in their struggle against the US and NATO for their ongoing intervention in Syria and their preparations for a naked war of aggression against the people and government of Syria.  

We call on all member organizations of ILPS, all progressive forces and all people of goodwill to mobilize and organize protest actions against the criminal actions of the imperialists that have already caused so much destruction and suffering in Syria and are tearing that country apart.

US and NATO, Hands off Syria!

Stop imperialist war!

Down with imperialism and all forms of reaction!

Assert national independence and sovereignty!

Long live the international solidarity of peoples!