By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
16 April 2018

The International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS) condemns in the strongest terms the missile attack launched by the United States, the United Kingdom and France against Syria based on the false claim that President Assad had ordered the use of chemical weapons against civilians in Douma in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus. These three powers have proven themselves to the world as aggressors of the most vicious kind by violating the UN Charter and universally accepted norms in relations between nations.

Under international law, the use of military force by a state can be justified only as an act of self-defense after an armed attack by another state, or, with the approval of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). None of these is true with regard to the missile attack perpetrated by these three terrorist states.

Such an unlawful act by these states against another sovereign state constitutes the crime of aggression– considered as the supreme international crime and the worst kind of terrorism against the aggrieved state and people. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on all states to respect the UN Charter after the three aggressor states launched their missile attack even without the approval of the UNSC and warned against escalating the situation in Syria.

The pretext for perpetrating this war crime is clearly a false flag operation. Evidence has come out that the White Helmets are behind this false flag operation which was staged to justify the missile attack. The White Helmets is a pseudo-humanitarian aid organization founded by a former British intelligence officer turned mercenary, James Le Mesurier in Turkey in March 2013 and funded by the US, UK and Japan. The White Helmets work closely with the Nusra Front and other terrorist armed groups in Syria.

A chemical attack by the Syrian government in Eastern Ghouta defies any logic. The region has just recently been liberated by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA). The Syrian government has basically won the war recovering most of the territory it had lost to the terrorist groups trained, armed and financed by the US-led western coalition in a futile attempt to effect regime change in Syria.

Syria had disposed of its arsenal of chemical weapons in a deal brokered by Russia and the US in 2013 for Syria to give up its stockpile of chemical weapons for destruction. The first load was shipped out in January 2014 and the last load in 2015. On the other hand, the jihadist armed groups trying to overthrow Assad have been proven in a number of instances to have carried out chemical attacks in a clear attempt to provoke massive retaliation from the US-led coalition after Obama warned Syria that the use of chemical weapons was a “red-line” that Assad should not cross.

Chemical attacks in Idlib and Homs in 2012 that were earlier blamed on the Syrian government were later proven to have been carried out by the Nusra Front and other terrorist groups. On August 21, 2015, the OPCW declared that ISIS was responsible for chemical attacks in Mare in the governorate of Aleppo.

The Syrian government has in fact invited the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to conduct an investigation of the alleged chemical attack in Douma. An OPCW team of experts has arrived in Damascus and is due to proceed to Douma to begin their investigation. The US, UK and France launched their attack even before an impartial investigation that could ferret out the truth and prove that in fact it was a false flag operation. Russia and Syria have asserted that the missile attack was meant to prevent and sabotage the OPCW fact-finding mission.

The ILPS calls on all peace-loving people of the world and the international community to condemn this latest act of aggression by the US, UK and France against a sovereign state in violation of international law. The ILPS condemns the continuing intervention of the US-led western coalition in Syria and their attempts to prevent a peaceful solution to the Syrian conflict. The ILPS supports the just struggle of the Syrian people to defend their national sovereignty against foreign aggression and imperialist domination. ###