Press Release

Meeting of Solidarity of Communist and Leftist Parties In Europe and Arab countries

The Meeting of Solidarity of European and Arab Communist and Leftist parties against the US interference in Lebanon and in the region, that was held on the initiative of the Lebanese Communist party (in the UNESCO Palace, Beirut, April, 5-6th 2008), and in which the representatives of Communist and Leftist parties from Europe and Arab countries from Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Syria, Italy, Belgium, Turkey, Check Republic, Russia, Palestine, Jordan and Bahrain took part, states:

1. The dangers that the Middle East and Lebanon have been facing lately are caused by the US-Israeli plan against the peoples and countries of the region. This plan presupposes the use of a number of means, in particular, the method of classical colonialism- aggression and war as it has been realized through the occupation of Iraq, Israeli aggression against Lebanon in July 2006, as well as the war against Gaza and the Palestinian people.

The realization of this plan is revealing the dangerous consequences of the US imperialism aggressive policy for the whole world and the stabilization, sovereignty, security of the Middle East region. This plan is realized through the deployment of warships in the territorial waters of Lebanon, the establishment of the US military bases in the Gulf region, along with US threats against the countries of the region. In this context the US is using the Iranian Nuclear Program as a pretext for interference and escalation in the region.

Not only the USA implements the following policy but also the European Union, in particular, its dominant forces, what aggravates the situation in the region. The global aim of this plan is the dominance in the region, confiscation of the region oil resources, and the defense of Israel's security, what, in its turn, is believed to be a stage in the struggle for world hegemony.

2. In Arab countries the US plan came across the courageous and steadfast resistance: the Israeli aggressor was driven out from Beirut in 1982 by the military resistance led by Leftist forces including the Lebanese Communist Party, and later in 2000 from the considerable part of Lebanese territory by the Islamic Resistance. All that has created considerable obstacles for the US in Iraq, and has hindered Israeli occupation of Gaza in 2008. As a result of the resistance and protests against the US policy, it has failed in realization of its main goals. This, in its turn, has proved the possibility of a complete failure of the US strategy in the region. Despite the fact that the plan's neo-liberal strategy ensures certain success, though, not a definite one. The US recognition of the Jewish character of Israel after the defeat of Israeli army in the war of 2006, what revealed the inability of Israel to accomplish its function as a military base, can be interpreted as the aggression against the Arab peoples.

3. The development of events, the US constant interference and pressure, the visits of Dick Cheney, Gonzalez Rice, George Bush, as well as deepening of contradictions and tension in each country and in the whole of the region, all these reveals the probability that Bush and the US administration in the course of their mandate left may turn to the military actions in the region in order to accomplish their plan the so-called `New Middle East' through the `Lebanon's gates'.

4. The participants of the solidarity meeting highly value the initiative of the Lebanese Communist Party to organize this convention, express fraternal solidarity with its national and democratic struggle for the defense of the rights of the Lebanese people, the strengthening of the positions of leftist and democratic forces, the opposition to Israel's ambitions along with the Islamic Resistance, and the establishment of a secular democratic sovereign Arab Lebanon.

The participants accuse the criminal and aggressive US policy against the peoples of Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon; support the forces rejecting the US plan; back the right of Arab national and leftist forces to oppose the aggression and occupation considering it a legal practice.

The participants express their full solidarity with the people of Palestine and with their historic struggle. They support the idea of unity of the Palestinian people, their right for a national sovereign state on the territory of Palestine occupied in 1967 by Israel with the capital Jerusalem, and the return of all refuges according to the UN Resolution 194. They accuse the criminal blockade of the Gaza stip.

The participants condemn the increasing pressure on behalf of the imperialist forces, in particular, the USA, against a number of countries, including Syria, in order to force it to surrender and to renounce its national rights. They consider the unity of Arab peoples' struggle an indispensable condition to undermine the imperialist plans.

The participants of the meeting recognize that the struggle of the Lebanese people and the peoples of the Middle East against the US and Israel's plans tends to be a part of the struggle of the world's leftist and progressive forces against the US hegemony in defence of common interests of peoples. They call for integration of international solidarity with the struggle of the peoples in the region, and denunciation of the imperialist and Zionist propaganda and allegations spread through the Media in order to distort the essence of the national and liberation struggle of the peoples of the region against aggression, war, hegemony, and confiscation of natural resources of the countries.

The participants think that the situation demands to put into practice actions of solidarity with the peoples of the region; therefore, they intend to:

1. To organize a broad solidarity campaign, each in his own country, with the struggle of Arab peoples, in particular, with the peoples of Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon against the aggressive US and Israel's plans.

2. To organize, if possible, a campaign for the withdrawal of new and old military bases, in particular, in the countries where the bases are deployed, and in the countries whose bases are deployed, to put an end to the occupation of the Arab countries' territory, in particular, in Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon, and turning of the Middle East and the Mediterranean Sea into the region free from the weapons of mass destruction and the Israeli nuclear weapons.

3. To provide the leftist and communist parties of the world with the information about the events in the region in order to put an end to the monopoly of the imperialist Media.

4. To organize similar meetings.

5. To take advantage of the official institutions such as European and Arab parliaments, international organizations to denounce the imperialist strategy in the Middle East.

6. To exert pressure on the regimes of Arab countries in order to reject the requests of the imperialist navy forces to provide them with services, and to reject participation in their manoeuvres.

7. To organize massive campaigns in Arab countries to stop the process of normalization of relations with Israel that hinders the just regulations of the Middle East crisis, and to exert pressure on the regimes of Arab countries to urge them to demand the implementation of the UN Resolutions.

8. To appeal to leftist forces to express solidarity with the Lebanese people on the occasion of the 2006 Israeli war and to exert pressure on international organizations in order to make the USA and Israel to take material and moral responsibility for the aggression, and to support the resolution on the Independent International Tribunal that took place in Brussels.

9. To organize a broad campaign of solidarity with thousands of Arab prisoners in Israeli jails, in particular, the Secretary General of the People Front of Liberation of Palestine, Ahmed Saadet, Samir Kantar, and Maruan Barguti.

The following parties participated:

Democratic Progressive Tribune-Bahrain

Workers' Party of Belgium

AKEL, Cyprus

Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia

Communist Party of Greece

Party of the Communist Refoundation Italy

Jordanian Communist Party

Lebanese Communist Party

Portuguese Communist party

Democratic Front of Liberation of Palestine

Popular Front of Liberation of Palestine

Palestinian People's Party

Communist Party of Russian Federation

Syrian Communist Party

Syrian Communist Party

Labour Party of Turkey

  • Central
  • Events and International Meetings
  • Peace and Solidarity
  • European Union
  • Lebanon
  • Syria
  • War