The PCP alerts the workers and the Portuguese people to the dangerous situation that is being created in the Middle East by the most warmongering and swashbuckling sectors of imperialism, including the threat of a new war that, if not prevented, will have incalculable consequences that would go far beyond the scope of this region.
The dangers of a new Middle East conflict are inseparable from the violation and disengagement of the US Trump Administration, in May 2018, from the so-called 5+1 Iran Agreement, and the escalation of sanctions imposed by the US in disregard of international law, not only against Iran, but against all those who have trade relations with this country. The recent seizure of the Iranian tanker Grace 1 by the United Kingdom represents an act of piracy, an aggression that is part of the policy of blockade and siege against a sovereign country - with obvious parallels with US blockades against Cuba, Venezuela or the DPR of Korea.
In this context, the threat of resorting to nuclear weapons is not only worrying, but inadmissible, as Donald Trump, President of the United States, recently said, referring to the existence of “plans that would annihilate Afghanistan from the face of the earth in ten days”, causing "the death of 10 million people". A threat that is all the more serious, coming from the President of the only country that has ever used nuclear weapons 74 years ago, against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The seriousness of the situation in the Middle East is also inseparable from the real qualitative leap of the US Administration in violation of all UN resolutions on the Palestinian issue. The announced “Agreement of the Century” is no more than imposing the denial of the legitimate, inalienable and internationally recognised national rights of the Palestinian people and rewarding decades of crimes and violations of international legality by Israel.
The PCP also alerts to the seriousness of the successive attacks against Syria, and also against Iraq, carried out by the US and its allies, notably Israel. The trivialization of these acts of war is inseparable from imperialism's refusal to accept the defeat of its subversion agents in Syria – as part of what they cynically call the “New Middle East” - and the wish to perpetuate the fragmentation and plunder of that country.
The PCP also condemns the continuing cruel war by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries against Yemen, with the direct involvement of the major powers of NATO, causing one of the greatest humanitarian disasters of our times.
While warning of the dangers of the aggressive escalation in the Middle East, the PCP considers that the Portuguese Government has a political, constitutional and moral duty to combat the war plans of the most warmongering sectors of imperialism.
It would be unacceptable for Portugal to become an accomplice of the plans already announced to create a so-called naval intervention force in the Gulf. On the contrary, Portugal must dissociate itself from any militaristic escalation or act of war in the Middle East, whether in the framework of NATO or of the European Union.
The PCP calls for the strengthening of the struggle for peace and solidarity with the peoples who are victims of imperialist aggression and wars, firstly with the progressive peoples and forces of the Middle East. The resistance of these peoples and countries is a major factor in stopping the war plans carried out by US imperialism and its allies and preventing a rush to the abyss.
