The following is a statement issued by the Tudeh Party of Iran on the 9th of October 2023

All efforts should be directed to bringing an immediate end to the current cycle of violence in the Middle East.

In the last 48 hours, the people of the world have been following with great concern the news that broke on the morning of Saturday 7 October regarding the disastrous and extremely dangerous occurrence of bloody fighting in the Gaza Strip and Israel. According to the latest published statistics, thousands of people have been killed and thousands more injured both in Gaza and in Israel. The intense air bombardment of Gaza and the destruction of many residential areas have left more than 100,000 residents of Gaza homeless. It was announced today that Israel’s Defence Minister, Yoav Galant, has ordered the total blockading of Gaza. According to the news reports, Mr. Gallant stated: “We will besiege Gaza completely – no electricity, no food, no water, no gas – everything will be shut down.” It is clear that the execution of such a policy against hundreds of thousands of residents of Gaza is nothing less than a war crime and must be strongly condemned by all the progressive and humanitarian forces of the world.

The Tudeh Party of Iran expresses its profound concern regarding the very real possibility of a large-scale humanitarian crisis as well as the growing risk of a catastrophic escalation of conflicts in a region that is already in a very unstable situation at present. Along with the regional communist and labour movements, we join other peace-loving and justice-seeking forces in reiterating the call for the immediate recognition of national self-determination for the Palestinian people and we explicitly condemn all attacks on innocent civilians and request that all parties involved keep civilians away from the cycle of violence.

The Tudeh Party of Iran believes that the continuous violent and bloody repression of the Palestinian people and the 56 years of brutal [and illegal] occupation of the Palestinians’ land were the real context to the bloody events of Saturday morning [and their aftermath], and this had been in the making for years. We recall and reiterate the warnings issued by the officials of the Palestinian [National] Authority as well as the Palestinian progressive and democratic forces – warnings that consistently underlined the reality that in such conditions whereby the Palestinian people, their legitimate and just demands, and the right to national self-determination are all denied under the iron boot of the violent and inhumane oppression perpetrated by the racist and fascist state of Israel, the region has become a powder keg so that a terrible explosion could be expected at any moment.

We believe that the extreme right-wing Israeli government has never hidden its intentions to instigate a war either with the Palestinian forces or, at the regional level, with Iran, in order to stabilise and reinforce its own position. The threats of war and provocative operations of the Israeli government against Lebanon, Syria, and Iran have always been an integral part of its strategy. In the statements published by the Israeli government, not only is there not even a slight softening of tone or hint towards an ending of the conflict, but instead a continually bold and noisy assertion that they welcome the spread of bloody and deadly conflicts. Officials of the Israeli government have announced that the aerial bombardment of Gaza, which began on Saturday, will continue and they have even talked about the “annihilation of Gaza”. This is a clear incitement to conduct [their own] terrorist actions that will lead to a terrible catastrophe for both the Palestinian and Israeli nations [and their peoples] alike. The US-led world imperialism regardless of Israel’s crimes in the region for more than half a century and the killing of Palestinians, has made clear its determination to continue its support for the criminal policies of the far-right government of Israel through its announcing the approval of a further 650 million dollars’ worth of military aid to Israel, sending the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, the world’s largest warship, to the Eastern Mediterranean (Israel), as well as strengthening its military presence in the Middle East region.

It is our view that the policies of the reactionary forces in the region, including the adventurous and unpopular policies of the theocratic regime in Iran, are undoubtedly aiding the belligerent policies of the Israeli government and world imperialism to attack the rights of the oppressed people of Palestine and other progressive and freedom-loving forces in the region, as well as endangering our own national interests. We call upon the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) to intervene to stop the war in the Gaza Strip and to create the necessary conditions for a comprehensive peace based on the respective UN resolutions and, in particular, to put an end to the ongoing occupation of Palestinian territory, to disband the Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and prevent the construction of new ones, and to take practical steps to facilitate the creation of an independent and fully sovereign state of Palestine, neighbouring Israel, and within the borders as they stood on 4 June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The Tudeh Party of Iran is aware of the dimensions of the violence, bloodshed, and pure terror that innocent civilians, both Israeli and Palestinian, have been subject to in the past and consider them to be an ominous illustration of the dark days to come, should the world peace movement fail to meet the challenge of securing the delivery from harm of both Palestinian and Israeli civilians as soon as possible.

Israeli citizens who have been captured by the Palestinian forces in the last 48 hours must be afforded their dignity, security, and human rights. The same should also apply to the thousands of Palestinian prisoners who languish in “administrative detention” in Israel without any legal warrant, specific charge, or access to due process.

The Tudeh Party of Iran calls upon all peace-loving forces around the world to take all possible peaceful means to immediately bring an end to the most recent cycle of violence in the Middle East. Let us resolve not to allow the Middle East to be dragged into another wide-dimensioned and devastating war.