Ebrahim Khodabandeh, former member of the Mujahedin-Khalq (MEK) and the current CEO of Nejat Society attended the recent sessions of the trial aimed at addressing the crimes of the MEK as a legal entity and its 104 leaders.
Khodabandeh was interviewed on the sidelines of one of the court sessions: “There are many unsaid words that need to be said somewhere. Regardless of the outcome of the court, these words must be said so that the younger generation, in particular, can understand what happened in this country, what incidents occurred, and where the root of all this lies.”
Regarding the strategy of the MEK, he said: “The MEK’s strategy was to overthrow the Islamic Republic. In the first stage, this strategy was to strike at the top leaders of the government so that a quick overthrow could occur and they could seize power. This strategy failed and was not carried out.”
According to Khodabandeh, the next stage was to strike at the bottom of the government. For example, the IRGC, Basij, the Hezbollahis (supporters of Islamic Republic). In order to run this phase, Massoud Rajavi ordered his forces to assassinate anyone who has a beard (anyone who looked like Hezbollahis!) and anyone who has a picture of Ayatollah Khomeini in his shop.
“We should reach the digit of killing one hundred people a day,” Khodabandeh cites from Rajavi.
However, the second stage also failed because the MEK ranks were widely arrested and punished by the Iranian security forces. Rajavi fled Iran and settled his base in Iraq which was at war with Iran.
“Taking shelter in Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s territory, the third stage of their strategy was to form the so-called National Liberation Army, as Saddam’s private army,” he said. “It wanted to gain power by Saddam’s military support.”
Aided by the enemy of Iran, the MEK launched some cross border operations against Iran. The largest operation was Forough Javidan which failed again.
So far, the MEK has had failures in different stages of their struggle to overthrow the Iranian government so they are doing the one thing that they are skillful in: Using violence. Khodabandeh stated: “The incidents that are happening in Iranian protests right now are the same things that were happening in the 1980s.”
Ebrahim Khodabandeh states in his interview: “After Operation Forough Javidan, Massoud Rajavi said that it would be worth it if half of the Iranian people were killed for the organization’s victory and gaining power in Tehran.”
