Ending Iranian Influence in the Region Through the Stones of Iraqi and Lebanese Protesters, Not American Drones

Statement by the Revolutionary Socialists

Once again, the United States intervenes to place a severe setback to the growing social movement in the Middle East, solely for its colonial interests and to allow Trump to emerge from his internal crises as a hero by assassinating Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a leader in the Popular Mobilization Forces, and possibly initiating an imminent war with Iran.

Iraq, which has been witnessing an uprising for months that transcends sectarianism, with its revolutionaries surrounding Iranian embassies and consulates, is now sure to face further divisions in the face of any potential American move. The Iraqi government will exploit the incident to further militarize and suppress under the pretext of confronting “external conspiracies.”

In Iran, where the regime has been facing an economic crisis and rising social movements in recent months, the regime will gain the upper hand against its opponents and bolster its legitimacy under the pretext of “no voice rises above the voice of battle,” blaming the “Great Satan America.”

Instead of the non-sectarian popular movement turning into a revolution that fundamentally ends these regimes and redraws the Middle East more humanely, Qassem Soleimani—like Saddam Hussein before him—will become an icon of the new war against the external threat, and any dissenting voices will be silenced in the name of national security, thanks to American drones.

We do not glorify Soleimani, whose hands are drenched in the blood of Syrians and Iraqis, nor do we seek to align with any axes. Our bet is always on social movements for political change, the same movements they try to crush, sometimes through the repression of sectarian militias and other times through foreign military interventions.

Ending the influence of the Iranian regime in the region will not happen through American strikes or blockades. It will end through the movement of the Iranian people themselves and the movements of the peoples of the region, such as those in Iraq and Lebanon, against any external domination from the West or the East.