After Libya, US to target Syria, Iran: CPI

news.outlookindia.com

Toppling of Muammar Gaddafi regime and his murder has turned Libya into a NATO "protectorate" and the next targets of the United States and NATO would be Syria and Iran, the CPI(M) has said.

"What is being witnessed is a heightened aggressiveness by imperialism in West Asia and the manoeuvres of imperialist powers to get into a commanding position for access and control over the oil and natural gas resources.

"For the debilitated economies of the United States and Europe, the capture of the resources of West Asia is a prize much coveted," senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said.

He said the "thin cover" of a popular uprising for the NATO intervention has been exposed with the massive bombings carried out by special forces of Britain and other NATO countries and Qatari troops fighting alongside the rebels.

"Libya will now become a NATO protectorate. .... Even after the fall of the Gaddafi regime, the Libyan Transitional Council has requested NATO to continue air patrols till the end of December," Yechury said in an editorial in the forthcoming issue of party organ 'People's Democracy'.

The US "can now find a base for its African Military Command (Africom)" and with a pliant Libya, "the Mediterranean can now be converted into a NATO lake".

Maintaining that "Syria is the next target and finally Iran", he said US President Barack Obama, "the peace-maker, has now embarked upon the dangerous course of preparing the ground for a war with Iran. The destabilisation of Syria is part of the pincer movement to isolate Iran."

Though a war with Iran was "a difficult proposition" for the US, he said, "Obama is resorting to such aggressive tactics with a political calculation" as he faced "declining popularity" in the 2012 presidential polls.

"Obama is seeking to shore up his support among the pro-Israeli lobby by making hostile manoeuvres against Iran," the CPI(M) leader said.

After the Tunisian and Egyptian popular uprisings overthrew the despotic governments there, "Israel felt increasingly isolated", he said, adding that now the US and NATO have "in the name of democracy and support to popular uprisings carried out the successful operation in Libya".

The US and NATO could now train their full attention on Syria, "an Arab state which has obstinately refused to come within the zone of influence of the United States".

After failing to get a UN Security Council resolution calling for sanctions and to open the way for intervention in Syria due to veto by Russia and China, the US "is devising ways to effect a regime change in Syria".

Yechury said Turkey, a NATO member, which had traditionally good relations with Syria, was "now becoming the centre for the anti-Syrian forces" with a 'Free Syrian Army' operating from there.

"For the US and Israel, destabilisation of the Assad government in Syria is part of the strategic design to eliminate all governments in West Asia which defy the imperialist gameplan. Further, Syria has a close relationship with Iran which is the biggest enemy for the United States," Yechury said.