Iran Interlink Website

++ The disturbances in Khuzestan began with a genuine grievance over water shortages. Very quickly the Saudi backed ‘separatist movement’ with its HQ in London, embarked on its own disruption and incitement to violence, bringing arms into the confrontations with local police. This resulted in several deaths and injuries among both police and civilians. In line with this, the MEK, as usual, came to help, claiming on its websites that the civilians were shot by the police – this is while video film shows that the armed Ahwazi group were shooting people.

#Iranian Fars News broadcasting videos clearly showing #American/ #SaudiArabia Backed #terrorists firing at people. #BidenHarris admin, while censoring likes of Fars News in the west claim Iranian Police is killing their own people in #Khozestan.
**https://t.co/KbBT8l5ucC

— Massoud khodabandeh (@ma_khodabandeh) July 20, 2021

Coordination between the MEK and Ahwazi group goes back a long time. Before this was a joint operation during a military parade to mark the anniversary of the Revolution, when the Ahwazi group opened fire on the audience. Iran International TV – a Saudi outlet based in London – invited both groups to a programme to talk about the violence and claim responsibility for it. This outraged Iran which objected to the British government allowing self-confessed terrorist groups to operate from inside their country. Now, in Khuzestan we are witnessing the same thing. Iran International TV, the MEK and the Ahwazi group joining together to claim that Khuzestan should separate from Iran and for armed resistance to be established to achieve this.

The last time it didn’t work and nor has it this time. However, this tactic is known to Iran observers. The Saudis and the US anti-Iran cabal push this agenda as an annoyance to score points against Iran rather than seriously believing that Khuzestan can be separated. As far as the MEK are concerned they have become a laughing stock due to their morph from an anti-Imperialist group to now openly saying whatever the Saudis tell them to say. Some critics in Farsi wrote to remind us that although the MEK are now crying wolf for the people of Khuzestan, at the time of Saddam they were fighting against them for Saddam. Ironically, this recent unrest has promoted a statement from Massoud Rajavi. Commentators mostly point out how irrelevant he is. But one writer compares Massoud Rajavi with Dracula; ‘although he’s dead, every time he smells blood, he wakes up. All it needs is the garlic of logic and peace and he’ll go back to his coffin and slam the lid shut’. Mehdi Khoshhal writes with the title: ‘Let’s say the leader IS alive’. The piece addresses the MEK members; ‘what are you doing? What is Rajavi doing? If he’s alive, why are you and your organisation in such a mess? And why isn’t he doing anything as a leader – surely he’d be better off dead? From the start Massoud Rajavi wasn’t doing anything. He was just in the right place and the right time to be used by anti-Iran forces and is still fulfilling this role.’ Ali Shirzad also writes in a similar way to the members, saying: ‘putting all these things aside, let’s talk about you inside this organisation. Let’s say you are where you are – mercenaries, dying, trapped, expelled etc – the main question is who is at fault for this destruction of your organisation. Do you blame Iran as your enemy, or the US as your supporters? Me, I blame your leaders.’
Why Western media silent on Ahvaz terrorist attackWhy Western media silent on Ahvaz terrorist attack

++ Inevitably, there were many responses to the MEK online conference. In the main, commentators said that the US and the west only do this – support MEK – to stop any kind of rapprochement. The intention is to trigger hatred with the hope that Iranians will start hating the MEK. They want to cause division because they can’t have a war. Even though every one of the participants is corrupt, as a general rule, the money that pays them comes from the Zionist circles who don’t want Iran to be friendly with the west.

++ In Albania, Gholamreza Shekari, a former MEK member who had vanished for a while, has re-emerged this week. He has now told his story in an interview with Mardom TV, and in a brief he published online as well. He explains how the MEK set him up when he was giving a lift to someone to a bus station. They planned to inform police that he was smuggling the person out of Albania so that he was detained and investigated. Shekari lines this betrayal and deception up alongside other similar things the MEK do, such as the case of Ehsan Bidi, or the kidnap and smuggling of Hadi Sani Khani from Albania to France, as well as other individual cases. He then talks about those who have disappeared, and their body has later been found. No one asks MEK about these. One was the champion swimmer who drowned in shallow water. He describes other people vanishing, committing suicide but, he says, nobody is allowed to investigate the MEK on these issues. Even in cases like that of Mohammad Reza Kolahi who was assassinated in Netherlands, Maryam and the MEK leaders are never questioned even though everyone knew that he had renounced the MEK and yet was a liability for them since he was responsible for the MEK bombing of the Islamic Republican Party in 1981. The piece concludes that the MEK are given open hand in Europe and the US. Even though Maryam Rajavi has been expelled from Europe, they still continue with their illegal activities in Albania and outside. Returning to his own situation, Shekari says, ‘they offered to get me freed if I would work for them. But I rejected them and was freed anyway since the police had nothing to charge me with. Let this be a warning to others to be careful. Don’t get near the MEK or they may trap you or trick you.’

In English:

++ Both western and Iranian media called out the hypocrisy of those Americans who participated in the MEK online conference. The only motivation anyone could reliably identify is that they were paid. By whom and why was open to interpretation depending on what conclusion the commentators wanted to draw. Iranian media interpreted the attendance as US support for terrorism. Western media was more analytical, though it came to the same conclusion – support for the MEK is designed to create division and hatred in lieu of actual war. Experts in the MEK, such as Anne Khodabandeh in the UK reminded us that the MEK rallies are not new, are paid for by Iran’s enemies and yet, after three decades have become more and more irrelevant. Best ignored since they serve no real purpose except self-publicity for Maryam Rajavi, who has proved herself year after year as incompetent as a leader.

++ A petition asking for leading members of the MEK to be put on trial in various International Courts has reached over 10,000 signatures. This began when 42 former MEK members brought a case against the MEK leaders in Iran. In March, Iran’s judiciary examined the evidence and found in their favour. They sent their judgement to the European countries where the MEK leaders are based, with a view to having them investigated. Since no such justice appears to be forthcoming for the victims, the petition was created by Nejat Society.

Jul 23, 2021

++ All comments in Farsi have been about the MEK’s silence during Israel’s massacre of Palestinian civilians and destruction of vital infrastructure in Gaza. Most reactions conclude that the MEK don’t have anything to say for themselves. The cult is so mercenary that they can’t speak for themselves anymore and merely repeat and amplify what they are paid to say. The MEK is purely a click farm. Some compare the current silence with that followed the death of Massoud Rajavi. Again, the same thing has happened inside MEK: members are banned from talking or asking questions about Israel, just as they were/are banned from asking about Massoud Rajavi. When the MEK say ‘banned’ it means members will be severely punished, whether by shunning or being subjected to mass humiliation meetings. Some commentors point out that when the MEK arrives at this kind of deadlock situation, the only diversion left is to attack families and ex members. This week, former MEK member Ali Shirzad posted a note to say: ‘Before, you used to threaten to kill me. Now you threaten to set me up so I’ll be deported from Europe. This threat is clearly not directed at me because you know you can’t do this. It is directed against your own pathetic members in your camp in Albania. But I couldn’t stop laughing when I came to realise that the one who is threatening me is the one who herself has been deported from Europe, Maryam Rajavi.’ Other comments point out that as a mercenary force, the MEK has become like an old tool that Americans don’t want to throw out. They have enough room in the garage. Sure it’s an old tool, but it has sentimental value for the warmongers – like granny’s old sewing scissors, they just can’t throw it out.

++ While looking at Israel and Gaza and the MEK situation in Albania politically, some comments point out that the other side of the coin is the human rights of the people. The politicians only want to see profit and loss and sometimes they make a mistake – they forget the cost of human rights abuses by using these tools which in the long run comes back to haunt them. Examples are Al Qaida and Taliban. There is no profit in the long term from ignoring human rights.

++ Today, after eleven days, Rajavi said that Hamas – which according to the MEK means Iran – started the fight with Israel by firing rockets. (Nothing about the attack on the Al Aqsa mosque or the threats of evictions in occupied Sheikh Jarrah.) According to Rajavi, ‘Israel was forced to retaliate and kill a few Hamas militants’. This is as much as MEK has had the go-ahead to say. However, this was not posted on the first Farsi or English pages of the MEK sites, revealing that they were forced to say something, but what they said was not in Rajavi’s favour. The danger is that MEK members who remember the MEK’s history of collaboration with the Palestinians – from Yasser Arafat to Mahmoud Abbas – are now questioning this change of side to support the Israeli Zionists against the Palestinians. This is reminiscent of the change from anti-Imperialist struggle to hosting Neocons from America in the MEK rallies.

In English:

++ The total absence of MEK activity in the English language sphere is, as one Farsi commentator pointed out, evidence that for America, the MEK has become a defunct tool; not worth paying to hold rallies or make speeches or try to get to Paris for a publicity photo. Maryam Rajavi and her acolytes can only sit it out and wait. Meanwhile, in Albania, on a weekly basis, MEK members are dying from COVID-19, old age and illnesses.

May 21, 2021