the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Oct 14, 2013
On September 29th, Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke on the phone. This phone call seems like an historic reversal, coming thirty- five years after the break between the two states, following the fall of the Shah in 1979. But undoubtedly the two countries’ diplomats began quiet discussions a long time ago, which weren’t limited to the question of Iran’s nuclear development, but included the situation in the Middle East and in Syria in particular.
To make possible this thaw in relations, Rouhani was presented as a moderate who has made a number of gestures toward the western countries. But Rouhani wasn’t the first Iranian head of state who wanted to establish peaceful relations with the United States. Up to now, the U.S. preferred to ignore these gestures and continue with sanctions against Iran, hoping to weaken the regime.
So Obama made a political choice to use this occasion to revive relations with Iran, showing that the question of Iran’s nuclear development had never been the true reason for the freeze in relations between the two countries.
The U.S. is having difficulty facing up to the chaos its military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere have reinforced in the region. Two years ago, when civil war broke out in Syria, the western countries believed they had found an opportunity to get rid of Bashar al-Assad. But today they find themselves in a situation without a solution, obliged to choose between Assad’s victory, which hardly pleases them, or that of a rebellion dominated by uncontrollable Islamist groups, which pleases them still less.
Never mind. The leaders of the U.S. have always known that they could make an agreement with the Syrian, Iranian or Russian leaders, on condition of giving them some concessions. This is what it wants to do today, by involving them in an attempt to establish a certain stability in the region. This may or may not happen, since the forces and contradictions which the U.S. helped stir up are uncontrollable.
Above all, nothing can repair the immense harm which imperialist domination causes and will continue to cause.