Representatives of seventeen communist and workers parties gathered in Brussels this past weekend, to discuss the escalation of imperialist aggression in Syria and the Eastern Mediterranean region.
Participants included representatives from Cuba, Brazil (PCdoB), South Africa, India (CPI(M) and CPI), Lebanon, Palestine, as well as Greece, Portugal and Belgium.
''With this escalation they try to intimidate the Arab and other people in the region who struggle for their social and democratic rights, and to change the situation in the region in the interest of the imperialist powers and their allies, including Israel,'' the final statement said adding that ''the people of that region [are] faced with this intensifying imperialist aggression and a grave humanitarian catastrophe, which is used as a pretext for foreign intervention."
The parties' statement also expresses "support [to] the Syrian and Lebanese people and expresses solidarity with their struggle to preserve the sovereignty of their countries against the new imperialist escalation, reaffirming the right of the people of the region to fully exercise self-determination, without foreign interference or intervention of any type. This is the only way to fight imperialism and its proposed plan for a 'New Middle East.'"
Other communist parties from the region and Arab countries have similarly condemned the threat of war in Syria in the last few days.
The Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) called the issue of chemical weapons a "fabricated excuse" for intervention.
"The imperialist threat against Syria has escalated with the recent chemical weapons narrative. Or rather, having decided to step up their violent campaign against the people of Syria, the imperialist have fabricated the chemical weapons excuse for intervention," the TKP said adding that "[T]he idea that the Syrian Government would use chemical weapons in an area where their own soldiers were present and at a time when they had the upper hand in the conflict is ludicrous."
In a similar direction the the Algerian Party for Democracy and Socialism, or PADS, noted that "As with each time the imperialist states are preparing for war, they are making excuses justifying their criminal attacks." "The imperialist intervention in Syria will have consequences to sow chaos and misery magnified in this country and, domino effect across the Middle East and North Africa," the PADS said.
"The USA, France, Great Britain, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which support the so-called anti-regime forces, are playing a leading role in this campaign" the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) stated adding that imperialism is supporting "[T]he side of the armed anti-regime forces, every kind of mercenary, which [imperialism is] supplying with arms in order to promote their strategic plans in the region."
"A few months ago there was reliable evidence that chemical weapons were used in Syria with the responsibility of the so-called anti-regime groups, but this fact was deliberately concealed" the KKE noted.
"The U.S. imperialist military adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the one that followed in Libya have not brought democracy in these countries pretext to justify interference in the internal affairs of these peoples. They have resulted in millions of deaths and injuries, destruction of economic infrastructure and the division of the people of these countries on an ethnic or religious basis. The governments which came to power in these countries after these interventions were not democratic nor are they listening to the social aspirations of their peoples. They are puppets of the imperialist powers," the PADS said.
