Liberation Forces Defy Imperialist Alliance

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Roy Mason, Läbour Minister of Defence, with British officers during visit to Oman. With him is his Parliamentary Secretary Pat Duffy MP SUBSCRIBE to Socialist Press ITAIN sues. issues issues TE 6 issues. 12 issues 24 issues. ... I would like to take Press. I would like.

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12 issues 24 issues a subscription to Se issues, I enclose 1 Park Hill, Loi £1.15 £2.30 In the Persian Gulf, the CIA-installed Shah of Iran is fighting desperately to carry out the wishes of his masters and patrons.

With his new-found oil wealth, he has built up a ferocious arsenal of arms both as a threat to the Soviet Union • and also to suppress democratic and working class rights both in Iran itself and in any of the surrounding countries where efforts to attain them are actively pursued.

We have had occasion in a number of issues of Socialist Press to notice the role played by Iranian troops fighting alongside British mercenaries and various officers 'seconded' from the British army.

This continues in the Omanic province of Dhofar, which lies next to the Peoples Democratic Republic of Yemen in the South of the Arabian peninsula. The Iranian and British forces are fighting against liberation forces led by the Peoples Front for the Liberation of Oman.

STATEMENT

This struggle is still going on, despite the statement by the semi-feudal ruler of Oman, Sultan Qabus, on 11th December, that he and his foreign advisers' achieved the "complete destruction' of the liberation forces.

This claim was somewhat belied by the shooting down on Christmas Day of a helicopter carrying British army officers, including Brigadier John Akenhurst, commander so-called Dhofar brigade.

Despite this, there have been continued reports in the British press of the suspension of hostilities. The Observer announced on 16th January the 'end of Britain's war in Arabia' and the Spectator on 7th February ta communist defeat' The PFLO have continued to report military actions throughout Dhofar, including the shelling of an RAF base on 26-27th January and a big battle to the south a month later.

The New York Times on 18th January reported heavy fighting at the other end of the country on the border with Yemen.

MERCENARIES

A further contirmation of the claims of the PFLO lies in the fact that the Omanis continue to advertise for mercenaries in the British press, particularly for pilots.

The thugs of the British Special Air Services are also still operating there, though we are assured by their spokesmen that they are engaged solely in such philanthropic activities as reopening water holes previously bombed by the RAF or herding people into newly built villages.

These operations bear all the hallmarks of the classic techniques of counter-insurgency against a military force that commands widespread popular support.

Perhaps the strangest proof that the liberation forces have not been crushed is shown by the continu presence in Dhofar of the forces the Iranian Shah.

As the International Hera Tribune put it on the 27th Janual the Shah, 'who has never fought major war, has been using tl remote Arabian Sultinate as practice field for his armed forces Iranian troops have been car ing out a whole series of bombir and other attacks near the Sou Yemen, though according to t same American newspaper t "military value" of these activit was generally consider "questionable'. Large scale fighti was reported on Iranian radio • 11th February between Iranian a liberation forces.

Of course the Iranian troops a not carrying out these operatio against the insurgents for fun.

The troops are there, as they a also stationed in South Afric North Yemen and Pakistan, becau they need practice in fighti against popular movements to ‹ their job of preserving the Shal dictatorial rule in Iran itself.

With this background, el treachery of the Labour gover ment's continued support for ti wat in Oman and obsequio support for the Shah's regime clearly exposed. The demand th the Labour leaders break sui diplomatic relations must be takı up throughout the worke! movement.