With respect to recent events in Syria and the Portuguese government's decision to consider the Ambassador of Syria accredited to Portugal as “persona non grata”, the PCP:
1 – Condemns the terrorist massacre perpetrated in Al-Houla, Syria, that claimed the lives of over one hundred innocent civilians, most of them women and children. This brutal outrage, consisting of shootings at point-blank range and cutting of throats, is the continuation of a wave of violence with several other massacres and bombings. It has laid bare the terrorist nature of the armed gangs' action – some of which are admittedly armed and bankrolled by foreign nations – are undeniably components of a campaign to domestically destabilize Syria ,that has been going on for over a year.
2 – Calls attention to the fact that this massacre must necessarily be analysed taking into consideration the strategy of militarisation, subversion, aggression and war being implemented by the self-styled “friends of Syria group” - whose membership consists of the major imperialist powers plus the fundamentalist dictatorships of the Persian Gulf.
This strategy – unabashedly asserted and widely publicised in international mass media – consists of financing, arming and training armed groups that continue to operate within Syria, groups that many sources identify as having links with terrorist networks.
3 – Alerts to the dramatic consequences that any attempt to embark on a “military solution” to the Syrian question, could have for the Syrian people, for the whole Middle East region, and even for the world. The PCP rejects outright the statements made by USA and European Union politicians and military leaders concerning a possible foreign military aggression against Syria, with or without the backing of a UN SC resolution. These stances objectively place them among those who work against the efforts that are in the meantime being made to keep the solution of the Syrian issue within the political and diplomatic spheres, and above all, place them as opponents of the Syrian people's legitimate democratic and national rights, and specifically of their right to peace, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity for their country.
4 – Reminds that it was based on campaigns similar to the one currently being waged against Syria (and that history has since shown to have been lies and setups involving allegations about massacres or stashes of weapons of mass destruction) that – from Kosovo to Afghanistan, from Iraq to Libya, bloody wars of aggression and occupation were started causing the death of many thousands, driving many people into refugee status, destroying entire countries, breeding terrorism and creating new areas of tension from the Maghreb all the way to Central Asia. These wars of aggression were hypocritically perpetrated in the name of “democracy” and “human rights” but their real motives were the major NATO imperialist powers' economic and geo-strategic interests, and the profits of the military-industrial complex and the transnational corporations attached to it.
5 – Also condemns the massacres of hundreds of civilians perpetrated by USA and NATO military forces in recent weeks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen among others, and in particular through the use of unmanned aircraft. These massacres were aggressions that were condemned by the targeted countries, but they did not merit a single word of condemnation, either from the major world mass media chains or from the USA's NATO allies.
6 – Alerts to the fact that events in Syria, in the Middle East and Central Asia – all of them elements of a single imperialist strategy of enhanced aggressiveness, warmongering and re-colonisation – are inseparable from both imperialism's goal of controlling these regions' huge natural and energy resources, and the worsening crisis of capitalism.
7 – Deplores the Portuguese government's unacceptable and shameful stance – especially that of Foreign Affairs Minister Paulo Portas – of alignment with the major NATO powers' strategy of war, aggression and interference. One regrettable instance of this stance was the decision to consider the Ambassador of Syria, accredited to Portugal, as “persona non grata”. This stance is especially serious insofar as Portugal, as a UN Security Council member, should base its actions on the search for political and diplomatic solutions to conflicts. This stance is also a good example of the foreign policy being followed by the current FM, completely contrary to the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic and to the principles of the United Nations Charter.
8 – Calls upon Portugal's workers and people – as well as upon the unity-based movements that stand for peace and for the defence of peoples' national rights – to mobilise and make their voices heard, in support of the peaceful resolution of conflicts, against war, for peace and cooperation among peoples.
