Iran Newspaper

Saudi Intel Chief Pleads With UK to Attack Iran

Tape Shows MKO-Saudi Plot to Attack Tankers

A Saudi intelligence chief pleaded with British authorities to carry out limited strikes against Iranian military targets, just hours after Donald Trump allegedly aborted planned U.S. attacks against the Islamic Republic, a senior UK official has told Middle East Eye.
The intelligence chief was accompanied by Saudi diplomat Adel al-Jubeir on his trip to London, the source said.
Still, the Saudi lobbying efforts fell on deaf ears, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
“Our people were skeptical,”the source said, adding that the Saudi official was told a plain”no”in response to the request.
The Saudi official also provided additional intelligence allegedly linking Iran to a recent attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, but his British counterparts were”not impressed”with the new evidence.
The British government has already publicly backed the Saudi and American accusation that Tehran is behind the Gulf of Oman attacks.
“I condemn yesterday’s attacks on vessels in the Gulf of Oman. UK’s assessment concludes that responsibility for the attacks almost certainly lies with Iran,”UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt wrote on Twitter on 14 June.
“These latest attacks build on a pattern of destabilizing Iranian behavior and pose a serious danger to the region.”
According to the British source, the Saudi intelligence chief will head to Jerusalem Al-Quds at the weekend, where he will engage in similar lobbying efforts with Zionist officials and U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton, an anti-Iran hawk, who will be visiting Occupied Palestine.
On Thursday, Zionist PM Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his support for Washington against Iran.
Tensions started to rise sharply early in May, as Washington deployed military assets to the Persian Gulf.
Since then, the U.S. has blamed Tehran for a series of strikes in the region, including attacks on four ships off the coast of the United Arab Emirates on 12 May.
Riyadh has also pointed the finger at Iran for an increase in attacks by Yemeni fighters against Saudi Arabia. The kingdom has been locked in a four-year destructive war, which has caused an enormous humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia’s Jubeir has denied that Riyadh is trying to draw the U.S. into war with Iran.”That’s ridiculous,”he said in an interview with Sky News on Thursday, when asked about the claim.
“Saudi Arabia has made it very clear that we want to avoid war at all costs, so has the United States, so has the United Arab Emirates.”
But last month, a government-aligned Saudi newspaper called for”surgical strikes”against Iran.
“Our point of view is that they must be hit hard,”an Arab News editorial published on 16 May reads.
“They need to be shown that the circumstances are now different. We call for a decisive, punitive reaction to what happened so that Iran knows that every single move they make will have consequences.”

Collusion With MKO

An unverified audio tape leaked from the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), a terrorist outfit banned in Iran, purportedly shows that the group colluded with Saudi Arabia in handling the aftermaths of explosions earlier this month on oil tankers near the Persian Gulf waters as the two sides sought to blame Iran for the sabotage activity.

The audio tape published on Iran Front Page on Saturday is a record of a short conversation between a senior MKO member and a sympathizer who are heard coordinating their positions on the June 13 explosions on two tankers in the Sea of Oman, which heightened already simmering tensions between Iran and the United States.

The English translation of the conversation, as provided by an online footage containing the tape, shows head of MKO’s cyber operations Shahram Fakhteh telling the sympathizer, identified as Daei-ul-Eslam, that Saudi Arabia was seeking a follow-up on the case from MKO ringleader Maryam Rajavi.
“In the past week we did our best to blame the (Iranian) regime for the blasts. Saudis have called Sister Maryam (Rajavi)’s office to follow up on the results, (to get) a conclusion of what has been done, and the possible consequences,” Fakhteh is heard saying in the tape.
Daei-ul-Eslam then replies by saying that blaming Iran for the explosions can have various types of consequences for Iran and can even lead to a military operation against the country.
Iran has vehemently denied any role in the attacks on the tankers while major international powers have dismissed a video provided by US alleging that Tehran was behind the explosions.
The MKO has been banned in Iran and around the world for its role in numerous terrorist activities targeting Iranian and foreign nationals.
Removing its decade-long ban on the MKO, the United States has used the group as a tool to pressure Iran over the past years.
Reports have also shown that the Saudi intelligence agency has provided the MKO with vast funding, especially since main elements of the group were purged from their old bastion in Iraq more than a decade ago.
The group launched a demonstration outside U.S. States Department in Washington on Friday calling for a military operation against Iran.
kayhan.ir

June 24, 2019 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Opinion: MEK Influence Wanes at White House, Gains Ground in House of Lords

An Iranian opposition group once listed by Britain and America as a terrorist organisation has been courting senior U.S. officials in the hope of establishing itself as Iran’s next government, and is now looking to the House of Lords in Britain for support, in the face of declining interest at the White House.

The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, or the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK), held its Free Iran rally in Paris last month, an annual event that the group hosts in which it calls for regime change in Iran. Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York and President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, was one of the event’s keynote speakers. John Bolton, Trump’s national security advisor and a longtime MeK supporter, spoke at last year’s rally.

From 3rdL-2ndR, former U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman, Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran’s (PMOI) political wing, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero take part in a rally in Villepinte, near Paris June 27, 2014. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

Maryam Rajavi and former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani take part in a rally in Villepinte, near Paris June 18, 2011. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

Few grassroots movements are able to command such high-profile speakers at their events. The MeK is different. As an opposition group to Iran’s regime, it receives substantial funding, believed by some to originate from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a strategic ally of the United States. Bolton, who has given several talks hosted by the group, is estimated to have received over $180,000 for personal appearances. There has been speculation, too, about the attendees at MeK’s conferences. Claims that the group pays for the crowds at its events have surfaced online, and footage of bored Algerian, Polish and Czechs at MeK rallies has been played across Twitter and Facebook. MeK has also been accused of pumping vast sums into social media accounts manned by dummy supporters.

As worldwide interest in Iran has increased, so too has the desire to get to know Iran’s opposition groups. The internet has given organizations like MeK the oxygen they crave, but it has also made them vulnerable to inspection. Controversial information about the MeK has resurfaced, like this video showing two former high-ranking MeK officials giving evidence of the group’s ongoing money laundering and trafficking activities, to the European Parliament in 2016. Revelations like these, and mounting pressure from Iranians both inside and outside Iran, have led White House officials, including President Trump, to distance themselves from the group.

The tipping point for MeK came last Sunday, when U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a speech at the Reagan Library in California entitled, “Supporting Iranian Voices.” MeK officials had made a public show online of the group’s invitation to the event. Three days before the talk, during a press briefing at the State Department, a senior official was asked by a journalist at the briefing, if the MeK had been invited to the talk. The official replied, “No, I don’t believe they are.” Their absence at the event confirmed what the group must have known for some time: it was losing its pull at the White House.

Historically, it has been easy for MeK to bend the ears of government officials in the West. A shared common interest in toppling the Iranian government, and handsome fees for appearances and shows of outward support, have thrown a veil over MeK’s dark past. With no other rival opposition organization able to match MeK’s financial muscle, their stance is often the only one heard on Capitol Hill. A lack of Iranian American officials within Congress has, too, allowed the group’s controversial past to remain largely uncovered in the Western world. The British government now finds itself in exactly the same place as the U.S. government did 12 months ago.

MeK has been quietly making the rounds in the House of Lords. A statement released in April 2018 by the British Committee For Iran Freedom (BCFIF), and signed by 100 peers, calls on the UK government and the international community to recognize MeK as a legitimate alternative to the current government in Iran. Former Committee Chair and Labour MP, Lord Corbett, spent a large part of his career supporting the organization, before he died six years ago. The BCFIF is aware of MeK’s past, though it’s unlikely the peers who signed the letter are fully informed.

The statement itself, which the Committee uses to justify its support for MeK, is riddled with factual errors which rewrite history to MeK’s advantage. The committee suggests that the uprisings in Iran were galvanized and led by MeK,though there is no evidence to support this view. There is, though, a general consensus among analysts that the protests which erupted across the country were uncoordinated and sparked by several different concerns, eventually leading to the participation of the Bazaaris, whose significant political and economic influence in the country reaches back decades.

The statement also claims that MeK has wide support from Iranians inside the country. There are conflicting reports on this, but the overarching view appears to be one against the organization playing a part in Iran’s political future. Many Iranians still remember MeK’s role in the political assassinations which took place after the revolution, and its involvement in the Iran-Iraq war.

The British Committee For Iran Freedom’s website does not feature the signed statement, nor does it offer details about its members or Chairman. A question mark also remains over whether the committee receives financial support from MeK, as it appears to be ramping up its efforts to place the group in the spotlight. Much like the White House, the UK government may see MeK as a pawn which can be dispensed with – or one it has no use for. That cabinet ministers never responded to BCFIF’s statement is perhaps the most telling sign of all.

kayhan life

August 12, 2018 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

What About Iran’s Assassinated Nuclear Scientists?

Now that the nuclear deal is on the table, the United States, Britain, France and Germany should help Tehran track down, arrest and bring to justice all those suspected operatives that were involved in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists. That is if they really are after rapprochement with Tehran.

Since 2007, the culprits have been given state protection in return for their "valuable information and services.” At the time, some countries helped exfiltrate these murderers from Iran and the region. They used ratlines to escape Iran to places such as Israel, Europe and even the United States.

The deadly attacks began in 2007, so the race to catch the culprits hasn’t been lost yet. In fact, catching and bringing them to trial has to become a priority now that a nuclear deal is being fully implemented. After all, the "historic deal” has to be about international cooperation and not further enmity!

The timing of the negotiations invites questions about the role of proxies too. Iran was busy negotiating with the West when the assassinations were carried out. According to mainstream media in the West, the killings were a desperate attempt by Israel and the terrorist group the Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MEK or MKO) to sabotage the talks.

Five nuclear scientists were murdered and several others injured in professional attacks. An obvious motive was to kill the talks, stop any progress in nuclear activities, and pave the way for an all-out war. It was also designed to demonstrate that Iran’s enemies had a long reach and could identify and kill top specialists in modern warfare. The MKO denies any involvement but Israeli officials and commentators have confirmed the MKO-Israeli connection.

According to the Western media, "The deadly attacks were carried out by the MKO, a terrorist group that is financed, trained and armed by the US army, the CIA and Israel’s secret service Mossad.” They cite senior Obama administration officials as confirming that the MKO is responsible for the killings. Some of the culprits arrested in Iran have made similar confessions.

Before and after the fall of Saddam, the MKO had a military base in Iraq. The group later established shadowy connections with the US occupation authorities, often through American contractors. This allowed Washington to deny it was working with a group designated as "terrorist" by its own State Department in 1997 – though that designation was lifted later.

While listed as a terror group, MKO members received training from the Joint Special Operations Command in Nevada. During the confrontation between Tehran and Washington over the nuclear program, the MKO was attractive to CIA and Mossad as it already had committed adherents on the ground in Iran.

It is naïve to assume the MKO was the only player in the covert war with Iran. There were others such the American and Israeli intelligence agencies. Without their much-needed support and intelligence, the MKO would have never been able to carry out the attacks.

Some might say the historic deal with the P5+1 means forgive and forget. True, prospects might be a lot better than they have been for a long time. But it doesn’t change the fact that the scientists’ families are still suffering. They want justice and they want justice to be served now.

This could only happen if Washington is prepared to help Tehran bring the perpetrators to account. That’s the best possible way for Washington to prove that it had thing to do with the assassinations and that the covert war between Iran and its enemies is ending.

With US Defense Secretary Ash Carter in Tel Aviv this is yet to be the case. According to the Pentagon Chief, attacking Iran out of nowhere is one the best things about the nuclear deal. In his words, "One of the reasons this deal is a good one is that it does nothing to prevent the military option. The US and Israel could agree to disagree about the merits of the plan, but that the planning for an aggressive war against Iran would continue.”

By: Kayhan.ir Int’l Staff Writer,

July 21, 2015 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Expert outlines reasons for US and UK support to MEK

Expert outlines reasons for US and UK support to Mojahedin-e-Khalq (Rajavi cult)

Interview with Ali Kordi, 1 August 2008

Translated by BBC Monitoring Middle East

Text of Interview by Politics Desk with Ali Kordi, senior expert at the Centre for Islamic Revolution Documents, headlined: "Britain and America want to preserve the Monafeqin" published by the Iran news paper on 28 July

Politics Desk: At the end of the month of Tir 1367 [21 June to 21 July 1988], the Monafeqin ["hypocrites"; reference to the Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization, MKO] group, held a meeting with the Ba’thist regime officials and reached the conclusion that with the support of the armed forces of Saddam Hussain, particularly his Air Force, it can launch a military operation and bring down the Iranian central government. These operations were named "The eternal radiance". However, merely few days after their beginning, the Monafeqin were stopped at the Hasanabad Pass [in western Iran] through a series of collective operations by the forces of the [Islamic Revolution] Guards Corps, the Basij, and the Army Aviation Corps and were forced to flee. The combatants [Iranian armed forces] named these operations, Mersad. In this connection, we have talked to Ali Kordi, a senior expert at the Islamic Revolution Documents Centre.

[Question by unidentified Iran reporter] What was the starting point of the ideological problems inside the Monafeqin group, which finally culminated in the situation whereby they drew their arms against the common people of Iran and the launching of Mersad operation?

[Kordi] In reality, the starting point for the ideological problems of the Monafeqin with the people and the political system was something inherent in the nature and essence of that group in the first place. This is because the Monafeqin group is one of the eclectic groups of our society, and as such, its members could never demonstrate that they are in harmony with the prevailing ideology and belief of our society. The Monafeqin could not tolerate the victories of the forces of the Path of the Imam [Khomeyni], as the school of pure Islam, and therefore, they relied on their eclectic mode of thought, and subsequently pointed their guns at the Islamic society of our country.

[Reporter] Despite their Iraqi presence and patronage of Saddam Hussain, why do the Monafeqin group still think that they enjoy popularity in Iran?

[Kordi] Mas’ud Rajavi and the leadership cadres in general in the Monafeqin group are severely suffering from personality cult and they always believe that they are among the most popular organizations and entities. Even during the days of planning "The eternal light" (Mersad) operations, the individuals who had joined the organization from Iran in order to take part in the operations, had objected to the way the operations had been designed and planned, and had said that the people are with the [government] system, and it is not going to be that easy to reach Tehran. Apparently, Mas’ud Rajavi became angry and agitated, and told them: "You know nothing about the situation inside Iran!"

[Reporter] Why at the present, some Western countries, such as America and Britain, are supporting the Monafeqin group? What is the special and specific function of that group at present juncture?

[Kordi] Up to now, America and Britain have tried to preserve the Monafeqin organization as one of the forces which are hostile to the Islamic Republic system of Iran, even though they know very well that this organization does not enjoy any influence and impact on the Iranian domestic affairs. However, based on the premise of foreign powers extending support and backing to the hostile opposition forces, they continue to support the Monafeqin. In fact, the only special function of the Monafeqin is to confirm the existence of an Iranian force which is strongly opposed to the Islamic Republic. The mission of the Monafeqin is to show some Western countries that the situation in Iran never enjoys political stability, and the Islamic state has opponents, such as them.

[Reporter] Do you think that the foreign-based hostile opposition groups are likely to take up arms against the Islamic Republic of Iran again?

[Kordi] The situation in today’s Iran is very different from the circumstances which prevailed in the early 1360s decade [early 1980s]. Not only small groups such as the Mojahedin, but also major powers and countries too are not capable of confronting Iran. The recent missile manoeuvres of the [Islamic Revolution] Guards Corps bears testimony to that fact. On the other hand, it must be recalled that after the defeat of the National Council for Resistance and the alliance of the Monafeqin and Bani-Sadr, none of the current political groups are prepared to cooperate with the monopolistic and oligarchic Monafeqin organization.

Source: Iran, Tehran, in Persian 28 Jul 08

August 5, 2008 0 comment