Syrian CP, Contribution to the Athens Meeting 21J2002
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From: Syrian Communist Party, Wed, 26 June 2002
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By Ismail Alabed

WE NEED NEW WAYS OF COLLABORATION

We thank our Greek comrades not only for hosting this
meeting but also for their initiative to organize such
meetings from time to time.
I think that the theory that states that the right-wing
powers in the United States, the powers of the military
establishment are the ones behind the events of September
11th is well founded. Even if we leave aside the various
conspiracy theories there is no doubt that these dark
forces badly needed something like that to happen in order
to escalate their military activity, their aggressiveness
and their imperialism under the banner of the Bush
administration. Even before the events of September 11th
the Bush administration kept "pouring oil on the fire" like
they had done in the Middle-east when thy ultimately walked
away from the peace talks and gave Ariel Sharon the green
light to continue his aggression and butchery.

They did the same thing by relighting the fire that had
died down for a while in North Korea. In this instance Bush
decided to withdraw unilaterally from the ABM
(Anti-Ballistic Missile) agreement that had been signed
with the U.S.S.R. in 1972. Furthermore, he withdrew from
the Kyoto agreement.

These events were crucial for those powers in the United to
assert themselves to all those that refuse to obey
Washington's orders as well as to intimidate certain
European powers who had begun to voice their objection to
American policy, seeking a measure of European
independence.

These developments were alarming for China and especially
Russia who was trying to regain its international role and
upgrade its presence in the international scene over the
last years.

It looks as though these events are part of a plan to gain
absolute control over the oil reserves in the Caspian and
the pipelines in Afghanistan and the surrounding countries.
The control of oil is the key to economical and therefore
political control over Europe and Asia.

So Washington took advantage of the Events of September
11th and, under the pretext of fighting terrorism, actually
declared a martial law on a world scale, aiming to
intimidate governments, countries and nations the world
over.

Everyday Washington invents "information" on allegedly
imminent terrorist strikes, as it was with Anthrax and as
it is now with alleged threats from specific countries that
allegedly possess chemical and biological weapons. All this
is happening to give America an excuse for the war they are
waging against the whole world, and to give them the right
to unilaterally declare preemptive wars wherever they wish.
As to how real these threats are, Washington presumes that
only they have the right to judge.

I also consider very dangerous the fact that the Americans
have divided the world into two categories. You are either
with the Americans or the terrorists. Whoever speaks out
against the United States, whoever fights for his rights,
whoever criticizes the United States is automatically put
in the terrorist category.

The attitude of the United States in the Middle East issue
and toward the lawful struggle of the Palestinian people
against the Israeli occupation and against Sharon's crimes
is the best example of their policy, for the disregard the
United States show for international law. Israel, as
everyone knows continues to occupy foreign territories
under armed force, continues to build settlements, and
continues to refuse the enforcement of the resolutions of
the United Nations Organization. Furthermore Israel still
does not apply even those unjust agreements that were
signed under the aegis of Washington while, at the same
time they use the most advanced state of the art American
weapons to perpetrate the most heinous atrocities upon the
unarmed Palestinian people. They think that this way they
will break the Palestinian people who are fighting for
their freedom and legal rights which have been acknowledged
by international law and legality.

In spite of all this, Washington does not consider that
this racist state is a terrorist state or that its acts of
occupation and murder on the Palestinian people are
illegal. On the contrary, they support Israel, and consider
that Israel is defending itself. Washington is throwing all
its weight to support Sharon and save him from the
international outcry in difficult moments, like when they
didn't allow the Security Council to send the
Investigations Committee to investigate Ariel Sharon's
massacres in Jenin.

At the same time, the United States accuse Iraq of having
weapons of mass destruction, thus masking the real goal
which is the control over Iraq and its oil.

It becomes obvious here that the USA use two measures and
standards: Israel has nuclear weapons and refuses to sign
the international agreements for the control of weapons of
mass destruction, and instead of condemning these actions
the USA continue to supply Israel with weapons.

In spite of the protest of several countries, and even of
some European US allies, to this policy president Bush
obstinately continues to use the term "Axis of evil" and to
make heavy accusations left and right, without any
explanation or evidence.

The last example of American impudence is the threat the
American ambassador to the UN launched, invoking article 7
of the UN charter against Syria, under the pretext that
Syria shelters terrorist organizations on its territory.

Syria's position is crystal clear. Syria clearly
discriminates between terrorism and legitimate national
resistance. Syria supports the "Indifanta" of the
Palestinian people to reclaim their occupied territories.
Syria considers that there cannot be peace in the area if
first there is not a just and comprehensive solution based
on UN resolutions, based on the principle of exchanging
land for peace and on the agreements that took 10 years of
negotiations.

So it is only natural that we in Syria reject any
invitation to participate in a world meeting if it is not
based upon these principles. No international conference or
meeting can start from zero to impose upon Palestinians the
political terms that they have already rejected. No one can
ignore the massacres they have suffered in the last years

We salute the heroic resistance of the Palestinian people.
We warmly salute, in particular, the attitude and actions
of European and other foreign pacifists and fighters who
have formed a human shield to protect the Palestinian
nation and its leadership.

We also salute the communist parties of Europe who
organized rallies and manifestations of support and
solidarity to the struggle of the Palestinian people.

These initiatives were very popular to our nations and
upgraded the need for international solidarity.

We are grateful to all the forces that deployed these
initiatives and especially the European communist parties
who played the greatest role in this department. In order
to face globalization and the US attempts to impose total
domination on the world we need to invent new ways of
resistance and cooperation among nations and organize the
counter-attack against imperialism and capitalism, so we
can find the points that unite us to other non-government
organizations and forces of civil society. Thank you very
much.

One of the primary targets of Israeli policy is to change
the program and the nature of the Palestinian Authority,
the program that calls for the application of the United
Nations Organization's resolutions. The Israelis want the
Palestinian Authority to abandon the UN resolutions and
accept a new program, a so-called "provisory long-term
program". In other words they want a Palestinian Authority
who will only be responsible for Palestinians without,
however, any territorial jurisdiction.

And as long as the Palestinian Authority rejects these two
conditions and the Palestinian nation continues its
struggle, the Israeli siege will continue. It is a
recurrence of the situation that was imposed on Iraq. It is
a collective punishment, a siege with a political goal;
whish is to force the Palestinian Nation to submission.