Japan Press Weekly

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2013 August 28 - September 3 TOP3 [WORLD]

JCP Shii opposes move for US attack on Syria

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on August 30 issued a statement in protest against a possible U.S. attack on Syria.

The JCP has sent this statement to all embassies in Japan. It also plans to have its Dietmembers visit and hand over the statement to the embassies of permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and the G20 member countries.

Shii’s statement is as follows:

I
The United States and other countries are poised to launch a military attack on Syria, in the midst of a raging civil war, based on a unilateral judgment that the Syrian forces used chemical weapons against the rebel forces. Any use of chemical weapons by anyone is a grave atrocity against humanity and an infringement of international law. Presently, the U.N. Investigation Mission is in the process of determining the facts on the ground.

Unilaterally attacking Syria under such circumstances without a U.N Security Council resolution is a clear violation of the U.N. Charter and international law. The Japanese Communist Party strongly opposes the planned attack on Syria by the U.S. and other countries.

II
Moreover, although the U.S and others attempt to justify such an attack by referring to Syria’s alleged “violation of international norms” prohibiting chemical weapons, a military intervention would never solve the question of chemical weapons.

Syria is one of the few countries that remain outside of the Chemical Weapons Convention which obliges the state parties to comply with total prohibition and destruction of chemical weapons. Only by way of determining the facts surrounding the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria with the U.N. playing a central role in it, as well as concerted international efforts to get Syria to abandon its chemical arsenal, can we solve this question. A unilateral military attack would not only hamper such international cooperation but also risk bringing about extremely serious consequences including the actual proliferation of chemical weapons inside Syria.

III
On outside military assistance being given to the parties in the Syrian conflict, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon made a stern warning, saying “The military logic has given us a country on the verge of total destruction, a region in chaos and a global threat. Why add more fuel to the fire?” External military intervention is destined to increase human casualties further and escalate the civil war, spreading catastrophic consequences in the wider region. We must emphasize that there is no military solution to the Syrian conflict. In this regard, lessons should be learnt from the past experiences, especially the Iraq War that began with an outside military intervention without U.N. Security Council authorization.

The U.N. General Assembly resolution on political settlement of the Syrian conflict, adopted on May 15, 2013, calls for the commencement of a serious political dialogue between the Syrian government and the Syrian opposition and the establishment of a transitional government in which both sides are represented. International society should make every diplomatic effort to bring the parties to the Syrian conflict to the negotiating table so that the conflict should be solved through political dialogue.