December 31, 2024
The year 2024 is entering 2025 amidst the flames of war in the Middle East, the killing of women and children in Gaza and Lebanon, the overthrow of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and the simultaneous rise to power of a group emerging from religious reaction in his place, the bloodshed and casualties in the Ukrainian war, and the advance of right-wing movements worldwide, culminating in Trump's rise to power, with great fear and hope for life in peace and freedom.
In the past year, our country has faced deep and widespread political, economic, and social crises. The continuation and deepening of the crises, along with unemployment, inflation, and skyrocketing prices, have put the lives of a large part of the country's people at risk. The conflict over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and the political isolation it has caused continues. Not a day goes by without dozens of strikes and protests against this situation taking place in the country. The Islamic Republic’s response, as always, has been repression, threats, and expulsions. But efforts to get rid of this situation continue. People’s revolutionary movements and protests are ongoing within society. The “Women, Life, Freedom” movement has shaken the pillars of the Islamic Republic. The regime’s struggle to return to the era before this movement has failed. Our country is in the throes of changes that began with the emergence of this movement; a movement that has shattered an important part of the foundations and imposed beliefs of the Islamic Republic system and brought about far-reaching changes at the societal level. Over the past year, people’s resistance to the regime has become more widespread. The boycott of the regime’s mock presidential election was another culmination of society’s successful emergence, which, according to the regime’s own statistics, was held with the lowest possible participation of the people. The regime's retreat from the brave women of our country, the suspension of the "Hijab and Chastity" law, and the removal of filtering from WhatsApp are some of the promising examples that the Iranian people's movement has brought about the defeat of the regime's policies at home. Now, at the height of despair and a bankrupt economy, the Islamic Republic is entering the New Year with shaky steps, while its internal factions are turning on each other.
We begin the year 2025 in conditions where war and bloodshed continue in the Middle East region and Ukraine. There is still no sign of peace and an end to these wars. Israel's war with the Palestinians in Gaza, which is a genocide in one part of the world, has shaken the Middle East beyond the borders of these two. All of Gaza has been turned into ruins; its millions population has been displaced and more than 45,000 people have been killed, a large part of whom are children and women. In Syria, the dictatorship of the Assad family has collapsed. After the attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Israeli government has once again started to invade Syrian territory, this time taking advantage of the fall of the Assad regime and destroying the country’s military infrastructure through hundreds of heavy airstrikes and is also planning to occupy another part of Syria. Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the main force after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, is an extremist religious movement, whose effective members have a background in al-Qaeda and ISIS. This force has ruled and been trained in Idlib for the past few years with the full support of the Turkish government. Now, with its allied groups, it has seized power in Syria, and despite many promises, the country does not have a bright future.
The religious and ethnic diversity in Syria, as well as the control of parts of its territory by different forces, have made the situation more complicated. The efforts of the remnants of the Islamic State and ISIS to take advantage of the current chaotic situation in the country to return to the Syrian political scene have given more scope to the current crisis. At the same time, the Kurdish Democratic Forces and their allies, who control about 30 percent of the country's territory and played a decisive role in the defeat of the Islamic State, and who currently hold thousands of members and families of the Islamic State in prisons and camps in the region, are under pressure from Turkey and its allies in various ways. In addition, the tug of war of global and regional powers to interfere in the fate of Syria continue, and the interference of foreign governments, including Turkey and the United States, which occupy part of the country's territory, has made the situation more difficult. Over the past few days, pro-Erdogan forces have attacked areas of Syria under Kurdish control and want to expand their area of influence with the help of the Turkish army. The Erdogan government is seeking to impose control on Syria and, in the first place, to eliminate the Kurds from the country’s political developments, with the help of its mercenary forces and the ruling Islamist conquerors. In addition, the presence of forces affiliated with the Assad regime and their supporters, including among the Alawites, has paved the way for Syria to become a zone of conflict and civil war, and is a cause for concern about the realization of the dream of living in security and peace after the fall of Assad and the possibility of a new crisis in the Middle East; something that has made it even more difficult for the people of this country to feel victorious after this fall.
2024 was also the year of the failure of the Islamic Republic’s “strategic depth” policy. During this year, Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon suffered crushing blows in the war with Israel, and with the fall of Assad in Syria, the Islamic Republic’s “axis of resistance” was effectively grounded. With the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the Islamic Republic lost its most important ally in the region, and the way to provide aid to Hezbollah and Hamas, which had served as a bridgehead and rearguard for them, was effectively blocked.
2024 was also the year of the Earth's greatest warming. A year in which air temperatures reached their highest levels, heavy rainfall and floods of unprecedented proportions occurred, and dozens of countries experienced temperatures above 50 degrees. The signs of danger that threaten the environment and the life of humanity and the Earth are clear, but the interests of big powers and internal disputes between countries continue to have the first say. Climate negotiations often end in the minimum, but even these minimums are not respected by the governments that pollute the Earth's atmosphere. It is because of this trend that carbon concentrations in the atmosphere, rising global temperatures, and extreme weather events are breaking records.
2024 was also the year of success for right-wing movements in Western countries. Trump’s victory in the US presidential election was the culmination of this transformation in Western democracies. In recent years, anti-foreign and fascist tendencies have been strengthened in these countries. Right-wing parties are currently ruling in many European countries, including Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Hungary, and have a large share of the parliaments in Austria, Germany, France, and Spain. The rise to power of these parties with overt fascist tendencies, as a result of the widespread crisis of global capitalism and the inability of traditional parties to confront this crisis, is confronting the world with new dangers and tensions.
The Political-Executive Board of the Left Party of Iran hopes that 2025 will be the year of success for the revolutionary movement of the Iranian people and that the foundations of the power of the authoritarian regime will be shattered by the fighting force of the united people of Iran. Workers, diligent people and other people of our country can pave the way for the establishment of a democratic republic based on the separation of religion and state, instead of the Islamic Republic. Also, the war all over the world, and first of all in Gaza and Ukraine, can stop and humanity can control the flames of these wars and other tensions in the world; the warmongers and adventurers can be pushed back; peace, comfort and friendship between nations can be revived; discrimination is defeated by equality, killing and executions are eliminated, and public welfare and a life with human dignity for all people of the world are strengthened.
Political-Executive Board of the Left Party of Iran
December 31, 2024
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