Earlier this morning, Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Quds forces, along with the commander of the Hashd al-Sha’bi, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, were killed near the Baghdad airport. Trump himself, according to the Pentagon and the US Defence Department, ordered the attack.

Undoubtedly, the deaths of Soleimani, commanders of Hashd al-Sha’bi and any other criminal around the world, will only be met with the joy of the freedom-seeking people of Iran, Iraq and the whole region.

Just as much, the bullish and self-righteous actions of Trump, Pentagon and the US Administration, and their intervention in any country as and when they desire, cannot but be met with anything but the abhorrence of the people of Iraq and the region.

The killing of Soleimani and his entourage in Iraq will draw the Middle East to another phase: a phase that will bring about the escalation of the state terrorism of both sides, and even more misery on the very people who have been suffering from the crimes, wars and interventions of the NATO and the US, as well as the Islamic Republic and other reactionary states in the region.

The Islamic Republic, the reactionary states and forces who have been under the pressure from mass protests in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and ... will definitely try to capitalise from this new situation.

This attack, yet again gives the Islamic Republic of Iran an excuse to use the pretext of “fighting against the Trump administration and the Pentagon”, and upbeat its war-propaganda to enforce an atmosphere of militarisation in the society and push back the mass protests against its rule.

Similarly, not only the Hashd al-Sha’bi but also the ruling religious-tribal states in Iraq and Lebanon use the pretext of “safeguarding security” in this situation of war or proxy war between Iran and the US, to enforce an atmosphere of militarisation and push back the mass protests that are taking place in these countries.

Moreover, this killing will increase the rhetoric of Trump and his team to paint the “military might” of the US not only against the people of the Middle East, but also against the working class and the freedom seeking people in the United State.

The US-Iran tension and the in-fighting among the reactionary states in the Middle East along with all their open terrorism in the recent decades, have brought nothing but misery, devastation and hundreds of thousands of deaths to this region. The workers and the suffering masses everywhere, and this region in particular, will again be the victims of such wars and these rulers.

The escalation of the tensions between the reactionary rulers in the US and Iran not only bears no benefits for the workers and the freedom-seeking people of these countries; but it makes their struggles for ridding themselves of these rulers harder. Undoubtedly a world without Trumps, Soleimanis, Khameneis, Erdogans, , Nitenahos, and … is a more secure and a more humane world. Kicking out these criminals’ machine of terror and killing, is certainly the task at hand of the civilised people and the socialist movement of the working class in all these countries.

Hekmatist Party (official line)

3 January 2020