Lebanese Communist Party
The peoples of the world are going through a phase in which the risks to their existence are increasing, and with it their political, economic and social suffering, as humanity is on the threshold of enormous changes due to the aggravation of the contradictions of capitalism in its most brutal and bloody imperialist phase in its current colonial wars. The wars of imperialist aggression led by the United States are expanding and escalating at a frightening pace ahead of Donald Trump’s assumption of the US presidency on 20 January 2025. The map of expansion and escalation has included targeting Russia through Ukraine, Gaza and the West Bank to liquidate the Palestinian cause, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba in preparation for opening the major battle against the People’s Republic of China. The imperialist escalation uses various aggressive methods: trade and economic sanctions and blockades, rejecting international resolutions to stop the Zionist aggression on Gaza, attacking international institutions, most recently the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice and before that UNRWA, covering up the shredding of the UN Charter, providing the Zionist entity with the most advanced weapons in the fields of technology and information. The wars we are living through today are not like the ferocity of previous wars: Crimes and genocidal massacres against the Palestinian people, who resisted the Zionist enemy in the most heroic epic and continue to do so; Zionist aggression against the Lebanese people, who resisted the barbaric attacks and stopped them thanks to their national unity and the blood of martyrs and resistors; the incursion and occupation of more Syrian territories and the destruction of all Syria’s military capabilities. On the other hand, despite the imbalance of power, the resistance to this aggression continues and is open on all fronts and by various means, because the confrontation is long and will not stop, offering the most expensive sacrifices for the national liberation of our Arab peoples who suffer impoverishment, marginalisation and tyranny from their local capitalism and the social disasters caused by the imperialist-Zionist aggression: Destruction, killing, displacement, migration, refugees, hunger, malnutrition, epidemics, unemployment and indebtedness.
And no: International and Arab Section
The US presidential election and its implications
For the first time since 2000, Republicans in the United States have won an unprecedented and overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Trump’s vote is only up a few percent from the previous cycle. In contrast, the Democratic vote declined for many reasons, including the abstention of segments of Arabs, Muslim groups, the left, and progressives.
Trump’s victory was a victory for populism, religious thought, isolationism, “America First” and “America the Great”. The appointments he is now making to his administration (a lineup of Zionists, big financiers and the far right) reflect the forms and types of economic and commercial wars he will adopt once he takes office. Thus, the scene of military, economic and trade wars will be completed simultaneously, in light of the growing rise of populism and racism in the countries of the capitalist centre as a clear expression of the dangerous extent to which the crisis of capitalism has reached.
Implications of Trump’s election
Based on the titles of Trump’s policy of ending military wars before entering the White House and devoting himself to confronting China and Iran and implementing his election promises, all this will entail changes at the international and domestic levels, whether in terms of his divergent positions from those of the Biden administration, or in terms of his approach to crises and explosive wars, including:
His stated position that the war in Ukraine must end with a settlement with Russia, and if he fails, he will leave the consequences of its continuation on the shoulders of Europe.
The escalation of the Biden administration, Britain and the European Union by allowing Ukraine to bombard the Russian depths with ballistic missiles, and the Russian response by signing the updated nuclear doctrine, may be aimed at creating a state of tension that is difficult for Trump to address and prevents Russia from achieving the settlement required by it, thus continuing the war and weakening both Russia and Europe. His rejection of the establishment of a Palestinian state, even according to the “two-state solution”. His support for the Zionist entity in annexing the West Bank and Gaza while supporting its expansion policy according to Netanyahu’s expansionist map. Trump will push for the completion of the Abraham Accords, activate the Indian Corridor despite its inability to compete with land and sea trade in the existing international corridors, and push Saudi Arabia to normalise with the Zionist entity, in exchange for political and security guarantees, abandoning the two-state solution and settling for the establishment of municipalities that improve the living conditions of the Palestinians. Trump adopts the Israeli position to strike or modify the Iranian nuclear programme, but he may first follow the method of pressure, increase sanctions and provoke ethnic and economic clashes inside Iran, after its external influence has been greatly undermined, so that it will retreat to take care of its internal issues and is easier to contain, in line with US interests. This approach may mitigate the likelihood of launching foreign wars in the first period of his presidency while keeping the military option as a last resort in Iran. Trump believes that the US relationship with the EU, NATO, and international institutions in general must change, as they are a drain on the US economy and taxpayers, and the EU must bear the burden of its security and pay for US military bases in Europe. He will rely on the economic and trade war with China by raising tariffs to adjust the trade balance and strain the Chinese economy, which, for its part, will respond in kind and in Taiwan under the heading of one China.
International Criminal Court
The party welcomed the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants against enemy Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former War Minister Yulav Galant for war crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza. This decision is binding on all 124 signatories to the ICC’s founding charter, most of which have expressed their initial commitment to international law. In this context, the US rejection of the court’s decision, which the US government has not joined since its establishment, is a condemnable and brazen expression of US aggression and its partnership in the aggression and covering it up through arming, funding, information sharing and exercising its veto power in the Security Council. The implementation of this resolution and the follow-up of the other lawsuit filed by the State of South Africa in the International Court of Justice, and the commitment of Member States to it, would constitute a clear expression of the international isolation facing the Zionist entity and an international legal deterrent that encourages the resistance of the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples to end the occupation and stop the aggression and genocidal war.
The Zionist genocidal war on Palestine
The war of genocide against the Palestinian people continues in the Gaza Strip, where dozens of martyrs are killed daily amid a siege that prevents the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and settlement, aggression, assassinations and arrests continue in the West Bank at an escalating pace.
With the martyrdom of the head of the political bureau of Hamas, Yahya al-Sinwar, the occupation is still seeking to displace the Palestinian people, first from the north to the south of Gaza in preparation for the displacement of all Gazans abroad in the second phase, in addition to adopting various methods and methods of pressure and intimidation to control and control the land, including the establishment of an expanded buffer zone in the Netzarim axis to separate Gaza City from the rest of the central and southern cities, and strengthening the technical and military presence in the Philadelphia axis on the border with Egypt in violation of the normalisation agreement with it. As for the next stage, the Palestinian resistance will be under intense pressure, after Netanyahu considers that it has become weak after the ceasefire agreement on the Lebanese front, the fall of the regime in Syria, the withdrawal of Iran, and the decline in the effectiveness of the Iraqi and Yemeni front. Despite all this, the Palestinian people have no choice but to resist, and they continue their heroic qualitative operations against the Zionist occupation forces, causing more losses, deaths and injuries in their ranks, while maintaining a basic pressure force regarding the detainees to stop the war on the Palestinian people. The Lebanese Communist Party renews its support for the Palestinian resistance in all its factions, especially the Palestinian left forces, expressing its regret for the fighting in the West Bank between the Palestinian Authority forces and some factions in Jenin, which only benefits the Zionist enemy, calling for an end to it, and stressing the strengthening of solidarity campaigns in support of the Palestinian cause, including demonstrations, movements, legal cases and political initiatives in local and national parliaments, and activating the presence of the party, its organisations and leftist and communist forces in the world in these solidarity campaigns to impose a ceasefire and save the Palestinian people from the machine of brutality and cruelty of the Zionist occupation.
The fall of the regime in Syria
The Syrian regime fell suddenly, quickly and unexpectedly, without any resistance, and Bashar al-Assad left without addressing a single word to the Syrian people. This fall was preceded by failed political attempts by Russia to hold negotiations leading to a political solution in Syria, followed by another attempt by inviting Erdogan to hold a summit meeting to normalise relations with Turkey. However, President Assad remained unresponsive amid his inability to address his regime’s political, economic and social crises and to secure the popular support to defend it, which led to his rapid fall. This fall – an earthquake with regional repercussions―came after the large-scale offensive―outside the de-escalation agreement according to the Astana process―launched by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) and a number of factions with the full support of Turkey seeking to hit the SDF. The timing of the attack came after the ongoing genocidal war in Gaza, the Zionist strikes on Iranian sites, the announcement of the Lebanese-Israeli agreement, Russia’s preoccupation with Ukraine, and the lack of response from most parties to the political solution to the crisis that Russia wanted to achieve to spare Syria the fall of the regime and its geopolitical repercussions on the region and the international balance of power.
Within five days of the offensive, the armed factions were able to topple the regime under the leadership of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which used a peaceful and moderate rhetoric that was received by the Syrian people with satisfaction and hope, but not without caution, fear and anticipation following the occurrence of violations, killings and thefts that led to a large wave of refugees from some areas to Lebanon. Today, military forces and groups share the Syrian geography, occupying and controlling it.
The Zionist enemy occupies the Golan Heights and is expanding its occupation by controlling the buffer zone and the highest peak in Mount Hermon after hitting most military sites in Syria until Syria is now demilitarised with no army or civilian police. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham took power and controls the north and centre, and Turkey occupies two areas on the northern border. The SDF controls the northeast, the US occupies al-Tanf base, and the Southern Operations Room controls the southern region. This geopolitical map is a moving map as the battles in northern Syria continue with the Turkish army mobilising its forces on the border in preparation for striking the SDF. This map of the distribution of forces justifies fears of the project of dividing Syria if a political solution is not possible and chaos erupts. Al-Joulani unilaterally formed his interim government of 11 ministers, all from Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, and these same ministers formed the “government of Idlib”.
Positions of Syrian parties
The National Front parties declared their support for the interim government and condemned the defunct era, along with the People’s Assembly, the regime’s government, and the leadership of the Baath Party. The United Syrian Communist Party, the People’s Will Party and the Communist Labour Party in Sazaria, together with nationalist parties and Syrian democratic and independent personalities, announced distinct positions individually and jointly through signed statements and declarations, while the Arab Communist Parties issued a statement condemning the Zionist aggression against Syria supported by the US and calling for the unity and sovereignty of Syria.
The party’s position
In a statement, the party declared that the fall of the regime and the departure of Bashar al-Assad are historic moments in which the system of tyranny that ruled the country for decades was dismantled and its power extended to our country Lebanon, which had its share of the practices of the security and repressive system integrated with the system of looting and corruption, in terms of supporting and consolidating the capitalist alliance and the sectarian quota system in the post-Taif agreement period.
The party also considered that Bashar al-Assad’s departure came as a result of the fall of the regime and the failure of its policies to fulfil the duties of the national cause and address economic and social issues and general democratic freedoms, which weakened and exhausted Syria and created a favourable environment for extremism in light of the imperialist and Zionist ambitions and projects, which opened the doors for turning the popular uprising into a civil war and for foreign interventions, all of which led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, displaced millions and witnessed the most horrific crimes committed by most parties to the bloody conflict on both sides of the conflict, especially extremist takfiri and terrorist groups on top of them.
The party also considered that the suffering and pain of the Syrian people was shared by the Lebanese people and their national forces, and the communists and progressives had a large share of their wounds and pains. The party believes that the Syrian people today feel a mixture of hope, fear and caution: Hope for a better future, based on internal political solutions to Syrian issues, building a just and democratic national state for all its citizens of all affiliations, building the economy, reconstruction and the return of refugees to their homes, and fear and caution against chaos and the renewal of other forms of conflict and infighting or the rise and tyranny of extremist forces in light of the external dangers and ambitions that stand behind them.
The first of these dangers facing Syria today is embodied in the Zionist enemy’s ambitions and the continued intensification of its aggressive strikes, the destruction of all state capacities, especially those of the Syrian army, the expansion of its control in the Golan Heights, the cancellation of the ceasefire agreement signed in 1974, and the expansion of its control over large parts of southern Syria. It is also thwarting the peaceful transition of power and preventing the return of normal life to Syria by striking state institutions and disrupting their services to citizens, in order to spread chaos.
This calls for placing the issue of liberating the Golan and the occupied Syrian south from the Israeli occupation and restoring sovereignty over it at the top of the priorities of the national cause in Syria. The Turkish ambitions in the north, the Turkish government’s quest to establish a buffer security zone covering thousands of kilometres, its direct military intervention in Kurdish-majority areas, and its ambition to impose its political influence on the Syrian government constitute an existential challenge to the future and progress of the Syrian people. The US project in the region in general, including in Syria, is still working vigorously on sedition, fragmentation and partition through many tools, and the US maintains military bases and active forces on the ground in most areas of eastern and southern Syria.
The process of radical and comprehensive political and socio-economic regime change and the building of sovereign and just states is far more complex than just the departure of one president and the arrival of another. This requires coordination, integration and unity among the various national, democratic, secular, progressive and communist forces in Syria, to form a balanced polarity that contributes to reshaping and shaping the political future of the country away from sectarian quotas and projects of foreign influence and hegemony over the Syrian national decision.
On the Lebanese level, the party called on the government to immediately follow up on some fateful issues, foremost of which is securing the appropriate conditions for the return of Syrian refugees to their country after the security concerns are removed. The government should also work to secure the northern and eastern borders, noting the deployment of the Lebanese army in anticipation of any negative developments in the future, and to follow up with all its diplomatic strength on the issue of the missing Lebanese in Syrian prisons, whose governments of both countries falsely declared their non-existence in the past, while many of them are now found in the prisons of the collapsing regime, a sensitive humanitarian issue that concerns hundreds of Lebanese families.
The Party considers that the will of the Syrian people has opened a new page full of hope towards achieving a political solution as soon as possible to turn the painful page of the past and open a new page that can fulfil and guarantee their aspirations and sacrifices and their great national history. The Syrian people have the right to determine their own destiny away from foreign interference. The party reiterates its support for the forces of the left, progress and democracy in Syria in their struggle to achieve full freedom for the Syrian people, social justice, reconstruction of the country and the return of the displaced, strengthening national unity and restoring sovereignty over the entire Syrian national territory, and building the best friendly and fraternal relations based on cooperation and integration between our two countries.
