Tag: iran

https://peoplesstruggle.org/…/denounce-and-end-the…/

Statement of the ILPS

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle vehemently condemns the US, Zionist, and other imperialist foreign meddling in the internal affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the violence instigated within the country in another attempt to destroy the Iranian nation and control its natural resources, as they are doing in Venezuela and are attempting to do in Greenland. The ILPS stands with the people of Iran as they stand united against imperialist aggression and defend their hard fought-for self-determination so that any decision on Iran’s future is one made by the Iranian people themselves.

At the start of the new year, protests began mounting across the country demanding an end to government inefficiency and calling for more effective economic policies to help stave off the crippling effects of US sanctions on the livelihoods of working people and small business owners in the country. Sanctions imposed by the US have led to drastic shortages in basic goods such as medicine, building materials, and access to credit, and has led to skyrocketing inflation on other goods. US officials, most notably US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, have openly declared the intent of US sanctions to be the destruction of economic livelihood of the people so as the accelerate uprisings against the Iranian government to assist in its overthrow.

Yet, these public demonstrations calling for economic reforms were very quickly co-opted by other people, some openly claiming to be part of Iranian groups opposing the government of the Islamic Republic and others not claiming or hiding their organizational affiliation, who used the demonstrations to call for the overthrow of the current government. Simultaneously, masked provocateurs began using melee weapons, explosives, and even guns to attack government buildings, mosques, businesses, and assault police and civilians, killing many.

As these violent attacks increased, Iranian military and eventually the military was deployed to end the sabotage. The increase in state forces to quell the violence was used by the leaders who co-opted the economic reform-oriented demonstrations to inflame passions against the police and government, calling out more people to the streets and using larger protests as cover for deadlier riots by masked provocateurs.

Exploiting the situation and relying on a lack of clarity in Western media about the situation on the ground, both US and Zionist public figures began calling for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic and openly acknowledged the presence of CIA and Mossad operatives in Iran directing the violent attacks and threatening renewed military strikes such as those launched against Iran this past June. US President Trump made threats to assassinate Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and ordered a US aircraft carrier to be moved to the region. US and Zionist figures took to social media saying “we are with you,” making reference to a promise for military strikes should a regime-change attempt be made by the people.

In response to these open threats of invasion and acknowledgement of Western-backed intervention, the Iranian government made the decision to shut off internet in an attempt to halt these violent messages to provocateurs (mostly done through social media companies based in the US like Meta and X) and cut off communication between riot leaders. The government then called for a nationwide mobilization on January 12 under the banner of “National Solidarity and Honoring Peace and Friendship” in which over 6 million people took part. After this overwhelming show of mass unity of Iranians, including those from some opposition parties, against provocateur violence and foreign intervention, the previous protests calling for the overthrow of the government quickly died down.

Yet, Western news has still been awash in a media firestorm claiming that Iranian police and military have killed thousands of peaceful protesters and referring to the country as a “bloodbath” and with Iranian opposition forces and Western corporate media even referring to the current situation as an “Iranian Holocaust.” These outlets have relied almost entirely on people outside of the country, most notably exiled opposition figures and even the son of the former US-backed Shah, the fascist monarchy that ruled the country with an iron fist and gave the US, UK, and “Israel” full access to the country’s oil reserves. A closer look at the sources used in media stories show that they come from agencies with proven links to the US State Department or other agencies: Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRANA), Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), Tavaana, the Iran Disinformation Project, and the Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran.

Despite Western media’s near complete blackout over the US-Zionist genocide of Palestine and its attempt to block the horrifying images of hospital bombings, children being torn apart by airstrikes and tanks, forced starvation, environmental catastrophe, and other crimes inflicted on the people of Gaza, the world has born witness to the brave work of journalists and everyday Palestinian people getting out these images despite total internet shut downs by the Zionists. Yet, despite their near-monopoly on satellite and surveillance technology and control over news airwaves and social media, the combined force of US intelligence gathering and its media empire have failed to show anything close to incontrovertible evidence of their claims of supposed massacres committed by the Iranian military, notwithstanding the use of force and arrests to quell provocateur violence.

Official reports from Iran expose the scale and intentionality of such provocateur violence, marking a clear rupture from the organized and demand-oriented nature of initial protests. Rioters deliberately targeted government centres and public infrastructure – among them over 180 ambulances nationwide, bus stations, fire trucks, and medical facilities – alongside banks, commercial centers, and private property. Mosques and other religious sites were also violently attacked, with nearly half of those targeted in Tehran destroyed. A further 26 residential homes in Tehran were set ablaze. The cities of Shiraz and Rasht endured similar destruction; in Rasht, two nurses were tragically martyred when rioters attacked a medical facility. Such an assault on life, livelihood, and essential services is incompatible with a pursuit of improved living standards, and bears the unmistakable fingerprints of Zionist and US sabotage.

The Western imperialist propaganda offensive against Iran has nothing to do with the concern for human rights and democracy for the Iranian people but is instead an inseparable tool of violent regime change and further plans for imperialist war by the fascist Trump regime with the help of its Zionist puppet in West Asia, to ultimately control and steal Iran’s vast natural resources. While the UN Human Rights Council called for an emergency session on Iran, the same UN stalled inactive as a genocide was (and still is) carried out on the Palestinian people and as the President and First Combatant of Venezuela were kidnapped following the murder of nearly 100 Venezuelans at sea. Trump’s threats to launch military strikes against Iran if “peaceful protesters are killed” by the government comes as Trump’s fascist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers brutally killed a US protester standing in solidarity with migrants facing racist and xenophobic violence, detention and medical neglect while imprisoned, and enforced disappearance and deportation.

The attempts at regime change and justification for renewed military strikes against Iran cannot be separated from the continuity of US, Zionist and Western fascism and their desperate imperial offensive to confront rivals, preserve global hegemony and secure control over natural resources. US-Zionist strikes in June were justified through false and hypocritical claims of Iran producing nuclear weapons, while this time the excuse has been on the protection of human rights in the country. In both scenarios, the US and Zionists have relied on the same hybrid warfare strategy of false media narratives to manufacture consent for strikes, attempts that failed both times. This offensive is advanced with the support of the US’s European allies, who arrogantly condemn the Iranian government, while brutally suppressing popular uprisings on their own soil.

The ILPS stands with the Iranian people in their continued fight to defend their sovereignty from imperialist intervention. ILPS stands arm in arm with the toiling people of the world and all those fighting for liberation in denouncing the attacks against Iran and exposing the attempts to overthrow the Iranian government and replace it with a US and Zionist-friendly puppet as what happened in Syria and is threatening to happen in Venezuela. Only a broad anti-imperialist united front of the people, expressed through mass organizations, national liberation movements, and anti-imperialist governments, can withstand the rising fascist offensive and imperialist wars for plunder and usher in a bright future for all humanity.