Communist Parties of Iran, Israel, and U.S. Issue Rare Joint Statement Condemning Military Strike on Iran
In an unusual display of cross-border left-wing solidarity, the Communist Party of Iran (Tudeh), the Communist Party of Israel (CPI), and the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) have issued a rare joint statement condemning the U.S.-Israeli military strike on Iran launched in the early hours of Saturday morning — an attack that has dramatically escalated the already volatile conflict engulfing the Middle East.
The joint declaration, released as explosions were reported across Iranian territory, describes the offensive as "a war of aggression" launched by what the signatories call "the Netanyahu criminal government and United States imperialism," warning that the strikes risk dragging "the region and its peoples towards more disasters and civilian casualties."
A Rare Voice of Dissent — From Within
What makes the statement politically remarkable is not merely its content, but its signatories. That a party operating inside Israel would publicly condemn an Israeli military operation alongside an Iranian opposition party — itself long persecuted by the Islamic Republic — and the main communist organization of the attacking power, the United States, underscores the degree to which the current military escalation has galvanized the international left across national lines.
The three parties, all rooted in Marxist-Leninist traditions and representing countries directly involved in the conflict on opposing sides, present a unified front at a moment when political consensus across borders is virtually nonexistent.
"Regime Change" Condemned as Violation of Sovereignty
The statement takes direct aim at the Trump administration, condemning what it describes as Washington's declared intention to pursue "regime change" in Iran — and by implication elsewhere, citing Latin America — as a "gross trampling on the sovereignty and dignity of peoples" and an effective dismantling of international law.
Invoking the recent histories of Palestine, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Sudan, and Lebanon, the parties argue that no genuine liberation of a people has ever come through foreign military intervention. "True liberation and salvation from reactionary and authoritarian regimes can only come with the action of the people and patriotic leadership," the statement reads, "not from Washington or Tel Aviv."
The message is pointed: the three parties are careful to neither defend the Islamic Republic nor endorse the military operation designed to unseat it.
Warning of Regional Domination
At the core of the joint statement is a geopolitical warning that the strike on Iran is not an isolated act but the opening move in a broader strategy of regional control. The parties assert that the attack "is the prelude to total domination over the rest of the countries of the region" — a plan they claim the Israeli government and U.S. administration "do not hesitate to disclose."
They go further, arguing that even if regime change were to succeed, the likely outcome would not be Iranian liberation but the installation of a "subordinate and authoritarian regime" that has, they allege, already publicly declared its intention to violently suppress internal opposition — effectively replacing one form of repression with another.
A Call to the International Left
The statement closes with an appeal to "all forces seeking true liberation from the regimes of exploitation and oppression" across all three countries, as well as to "peace-loving and progress-loving forces in the world," urging unity "in these critical and decisive moments" against what they term "the governments of war and aggression."
The statement arrives as the Middle East braces for an unpredictable escalation following Saturday's strikes. With Iranian retaliation widely anticipated, regional actors from the Gulf states to Turkey are recalibrating their positions, and international institutions have so far failed to produce any coordinated diplomatic response.
Against this backdrop, the joint communiqué — however distant from the corridors of power — carries symbolic weight. It represents one of the few political voices to simultaneously criticize the Islamic Republic's authoritarian nature *and* unequivocally reject the military campaign being waged against it, framing the conflict not as a binary choice between Tehran and Washington, but as a contest between imperialism and the self-determination of peoples.
Whether that message will find traction beyond the margins of the international left remains to be seen. But as the fires of a new Middle Eastern war take hold, the joint statement of Tudeh, the CPI, and the CPUSA stands as a document of dissent from an unlikely coalition — one whose members share neither a government, nor a flag, nor a common fate, but have chosen, at this moment, a common cause.
Graphic: Manus