The PCP strongly condemns the military aggression unleashed today by the US and Israel against Iran, which constitutes a flagrant violation of the principles of the United Nations Charter, of international law, of the sovereignty and rights of the Iranian people.
The PCP stresses that it is the US and Israel, with the support and complicity of their NATO allies, who are responsible for decades of violations of international law, destabilisation, state terrorism and war in the Middle East, with their trail of death, suffering and destruction, expressed in the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian territories and the oppression of the Palestinian people, victims of Israel's genocidal policy; in the aggression against Lebanon and Syria and the occupation of territories of these countries by Israel; in the war in Afghanistan; in the aggression and occupation of Iraq; or in the aggression against Libya and Yemen.
Underlining the seriousness of this new military aggression by the US and Israel against Iran, the PCP holds US imperialism and its allies responsible for the serious worsening of the situation in the Middle East and its consequences.
The military aggression against Iran is part of a broader plan by US imperialism to try to impose, by force, its hegemonic domination over the Middle East – a region with vast energy resources – as well as globally, as evidenced by its aggression against Venezuela and the intensification of the blockade it imposes on Cuba.
The PCP stresses that the US, just as it lied about the non-existent “weapons of mass destruction” to justify its military attack on Iraq, is once again seeking to brandish false pretexts to whitewash its aggression against Iran.
It should be remembered that Israel is the only country in the Middle East that possesses nuclear weapons and that it refuses to ratify the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to accept inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The PCP denounces the PSD/CDS Government's complicity in this repeated affront to international law by the US and Israel, by allowing the use of national territory by US military forces – namely the Lajes Base in the Azores – in the context of this aggression against Iran, with the consequent involvement of Portugal.
The PCP considers that, in accordance with the principles of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, the Portuguese Government is required to condemn the military aggression of the US and Israel against Iran – and not to authorise the use of national territory for this purpose – as well as the criminal warmongering policy they are pursuing in the Middle East, which includes the genocide of the Palestinian people, demanding its immediate end.
Denouncing those who encourage and bet on the escalation of confrontation and war at the international level, and aware of the serious dangers and grave consequences this entails for the peoples, the PCP calls on democrats and patriots, on defenders of peace, to express their protest and indignation and to continue and expand the struggle for Peace and solidarity with the Palestinian people, with the Iranian people and other peoples who are victims of imperialist aggression in the Middle East and throughout the world.
