Bolton was a wrong choice by the impulsive president
Donald Trump trumped his national security advisor John Bolton on Tuesday via a Twitter, saying he had”strongly disagreed”with many of Bolton’s positions.
Naming Bolton as national security advisor was in sharp contrast to Trump’s campaign promises including his criticism of “unending wars” that Republican President George W. Bush and his close team, Bolton included, had started in Afghanistan and Iraq.
After firing him, Trump admitted Bolton made a number of “big mistakes”, including pushing for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Trump has turned his administration into a trial and error system. Analysts say Trump’s decisions are based on his impulses and that he has no strategy.
It was quite clear that Bolton was a wrong choice for the important post of national security advisor. Even moderate Republican politicians did not approve of Bolton’s ultra-hawkish tendencies.
He is a hard-hearted person. He has shown no remorse for the disastrous Iraq war.
Not being affected by the tragedy of the Iraq war, he advocated for war against North Korea, Iran, Syria and Venezuela.
Bolton’s thirst for war against Iran was so high that he favored Mojahdin Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK) – a cult group that some analysts have likened to Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge – as a replacement for the Islamic Republic system.
Trump’s administration is fraught with repeated mistakes. Trump knew beforehand that Bolton had pushed for the Iraq war and that he was paid by the MEK, which was on the State Department terrorist list until 2012.
Also, in March 2015, while Iran and the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) were busy negotiating a deal over Iran’s nuclear program, he wrote an editorial in the New York Times suggesting strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.
Trump himself was a fierce critic of the 2015 nuclear deal. But, he ditched the deal in May 2018, just one month after naming Bolton for the senior post.
Though Bolton is not the only culprit for all the chaos haunting the Trump administration, he added new problems to the old ones. To the detriment of Europe, he triggered a new arms race with Russia by encouraging the Trump administration to abandon the Cold War-era INF Treaty, sabotaged dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang, and disgraced the U.S. for his unsuccessful push for the ouster of the Venezuelan government.
Writing in the National Interest on September 10, Paul Pillar, author of Why America Misunderstands the World, says, “Bolton’s wrecking career began as an undersecretary in the George W. Bush administration, when Bolton boasted of his role in killing the earlier Agreed Framework dealing with the North Korean nuclear program.”
Pillar also says, “In each of his positions in government, Bolton has made the world a more conflictual place and the United States a more isolated and despised country.”
Now, Bolton has been sacked or forced to resign but the U.S. is left with a number of emerging problems: Iran is reducing its commitments under the nuclear deal, or the JCPOA, to an extent that may lead to its demise, Washington’s allies in Europe and Asia have largely lost their trust America and now see Washington as a part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
Tehran Times
NORTH CAROLINA – It’s obvious Donald Trump, who touts himself as a superb “dealmaker”, has not made any important deals yet as President. In fact, he’s done little but tear up extant deals, and the most notable one he destroyed was the JCPOA. But at the same time, Trump literally likes talking to other leaders, and some other leaders have responded to him saying they actually thought he was almost charming and reasonably well spoken. One would like to imagine this is the case, because Trump made a lot more sense when he was on the campaign trail back in 2016 than he has in the past two years. Why the change, because now, very few people like Trump, and his reelection is in doubt?
Well, Trump literally had no idea whom to appoint to help him once in office. He wound up appointing people (Bolton, Pompeo, even Pence) opposed to many aspects of his original, campaign agenda, and above all, he appointed some of the worst people imaginable to soothe U.S. relations and establish fundamentally peaceful relations with other countries like Russia, China, Iran and some others in the Middle East, except for Israel (which has been totally rewarded by the U.S. alone for nothing good). The Neocons have long been particularly aggressive. With Bolton fired this week, and some saner names being suggested as a replacement, one can only hope that Trump is beginning to realize that if he wants to MAGA, it will be impossible if he caters to Neocon madness. Under the spell of these American traitors, who are mostly Zionist in orientation, Trump hit Iran with the worst economic sanctions ever imposed on anyone short of outright military attack. And the thinking was that Iran would do the bidding of Pompeo and Bolton, which was way off the mark, and even farther off the mark succumb to the overthrow of the Islamic Republic in favor of the MEK, which is a whacko terrorist organization.
But more importantly, with the U.S. meddling in Hong Kong and with the tariff war underway between the U.S. and China, China’s President Xi no longer trusts Trump and seems to have concluded that trying to make a deal with the U.S. is a fruitless undertaking and that China might be better off just going its own way and doing deals itself with better partners. Such as Iran.
China has said it will invest $400 billion in Iran’s oil infrastructure and other industry. (Iran is, after all, the keystone country in China’s Belt and Road initiative given its size and location between East and West Asia. This scheme by China for Iran gives Iran the option of even continuing its current foreign policies in the Middle East.
Could it be that Trump realizes the opportunity costs the U.S. has borne with the Mideast policies it has maintained over the past three years? This may be too much to ask of Trump, such realization, but it’s not hard to imagine the benefits of a slowly warming relationship between the U.S. and Iran had the U.S. stuck to the JCPOA. (This writer argued with an editor at a major U.S. newspaper for the “normalization” of U.S. relations with BOTH Israel at one extreme and Iran at the other back in 2013, but the ideas were rejected and the editor refused to publish them. The editor had Neocon pals like Bill Kristol, a Zionist.) With normalization, the U.S. certainly would have gotten the lion’s share of scores of commercial deals with Iran, and China would not likely be preparing to make Iran a strategic partner.
Iran, for example, would likely have bought hundreds of Western-made aircraft from Boeing and Airbus, for one thing. The facts are that Natanyahu and the Jewish lobbies in the U.S., aiming to dominate naïve Trump as they did other Presidents, are ultimately to blame for what may be one of the biggest, commercial economic errors the U.S. has made since World War 2: pushing most of Asia and Russia together into a virtually united bloc that ultimately will declare a big “sayonara” to the unreliable, untrustworthy U.S.-led West.
Now, with Bolton out, it is possible that President Rouhani may have second thoughts about rejecting any talks with Trump at the UN General Assembly later this month. The question may be (in some jest) that if “Bibi” Natanyahu loses the election in Israel, whether Trump will do something even crazier than appointing Bolton in the first place in 2018 and appoint “Bibi” or someone like him to replace Bolton.
By Martin Love,
Head of the Iranian Army’s Strategic Studies says members of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) are conducting espionage activities against Iran by contacting the country from Australia, Europe and the U.S.
“I do not think anyone is as skilful as the Monafiqeen in phone espionage,” Brigadier General Ahmadreza Pourdastan said on Sunday, using the term Monafiqeen, which literally means “the hypocrites”, to refer to members of the MEK.
Pourdastan made the remarks at a ceremony to mark the 31st anniversary of Operation Mersad, 26–30 July 1988, which was the last major military operation of the Iran–Iraq War, involving a successful counterattack against a July 1988 military incursion from Iraq, by a military force of about 7,000 members of the MEK.
The MEK was established in the 1960s to express a mixture of Marxism and Islamism. It launched bombing campaigns against the Shah, continuing after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, against the Islamic Republic. Iran accuses the group of being responsible for 17,000 deaths.
Based in Iraq at the time, MEK members were armed and equipped by Iraq to fight against Iran alongside the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during a war which lasted for 8 years.
“During Operation Mersad, the Iraqi Army provided air support and opened the road to Sarpol-e Zahab for the Monafiqeen,” Pourdastan said, adding that the MEK militiamen were then faced with a large number of people who delayed their advance, hence providing the Iranian Army with an opportunity to counter the aggression.
“Thanks to God, the Monafiqeen failed due to the commanders’ acumen and the people’s resistance,” he explained.
The general noted that the Iraqi Army’s eavesdropping became much more powerful after the MEK had joined them.
“The Monafiqeen eavesdropped all of our conversations and were familiar with the key words our warriors used,” he remarked.
Pourdastan then compared the MEK with the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group, saying Daesh is the new version of the MEK, arguing that “we should not depict the enemy as weak and pathetic in our movies.”
Iran’s democracy foiled MEK, U.S. plots: government spokesman
Government spokesman Ali Rabiei draws a parallel between the MEK’s false belief that it had popular support in Iran when it launched attack on Iran in late July 1988, and the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear agreement, which President Rouhani has attributed to Washington’s false belief that the Iranian people were fed-up with the system.
On Sunday, government spokesman Ali Rabiei also marked the anniversary of Operation Mersad in his press conference, hailing the victory of the Iranian Army, led by then-Ground Force Chief Brigadier General Ali Sayyad Shirazi, against the MEK.
Sayyad Shirazi was assassinated in 1999 while serving as the deputy chief of the armed forces. The MEK claimed responsibility for the assassination, which it said was in revenge for Operation Mersad.
Rabiei said, the Islamic Republic’s democracy has “foiled the plots hatched by the Monafiqeen and ill-wishers, who both wrongly assumed that the Iranian people would not support the establishment.”
He was drawing a parallel between the MEK’s false belief, before launching the attack, that it had social support in Iran, and the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear agreement last year, which President Rouhani has attributed to Washington’s false belief that the Iranian people were fed-up with the system.
Rabiei then pointed to Washington’s “maximum pressure” campaign against the Islamic Republic, saying, “What we see today of U.S. sanctions and measures by the establishment’s ill-wishers closely resembles Monafiqeen’s aggression at the time of Operation Mersad.”
The MEK’s affiliation to the U.S. government attracted attention in 2012 when the latter removed the former from its list of foreign terrorist organizations.
The link became more overt after U.S. President Donald Trump assumed office in 2017. Trump’s associates, including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his national security advisor John Bolton have attended the MEK’s meetings and praised the group as “democratic alternative” to the Islamic Republic.
Alejo Vidal-Quadras: We (VOX) Received money from Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) terrorists
It’s years that extremist rightwing parties in Europe have found significant political power to the point that they have entered the parliaments of most European countries or either play a crucial role in making political decisions.
Today, Europe’s dominant extremist rightwing trends have moved a bit away from their origin, i.e. traditional fascism, and reject racism selectively as a result of an ideological transformation (denial of anti-Semitism and spreading Islamophobia). This is a factor which brings Zionist leaders closer to these parties.
But which sources finance these emerging parties?
A report published some days ago in an Italian newspaper which in part answers this question. The European newspaper wrote in its report: the Vox, the extreme right wing of Spain, has been funded by the MKO (the terrorist group of Mojahedin-e Khalq). The party received € 800,000 in their 2014 campaign from MKO; a group which was enlisted as a terrorist organization in the United States till 2012.
According to this report, it is necessary now to study the sources which fund MKO.
The Guardian recently issued in a detailed report addressing the history of this terrorist group, and describe it as a tool in the hands of the United States against Iran. The report also says that Saudis are probably the source of this group’s financing.
In this Op-Ed penned by Arron Merat, the members of MKO (before the Islamic Revolution) backed the revolution in Iran and then fought for Saddam. The United States and Britain used to condemn them for a time, but in the current situation, a group is a good option for the extremist policies of the Trump administration. John Bolton, the national security adviser to Trump and Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, are among those who pursue such a policy.
Under the leadership of Maryam Rajavi, the Guardian writes, the MKO has won considerable support from sections of the US and European right, eager for allies in the fight against Tehran.
Ervand Abrahamian, a professor at the City University of New York and a historian of Middle Eastern and particularly Iranian history, says “the money definitely comes from Saudis. There is no one else who could be subsidising them with this level of finance.”
MKO’s relationship with the Israeli regime
According to the Guardian, between 2007 and 2012, a number of Iranian nuclear scientists were attacked. In 2012, NBC news, citing two unnamed US officials, reported that the attacks were planned by Israel’s foreign intelligence agency and executed by MKO agents inside Iran.
According to the western media, it seems that the financial support in recent years has largely come from Saudi Arabia and Israel (especially Saudi Arabia).
We have witnessed that Saudis have had a strong presence the meetings held by the hypocrites and their high-ranking figures have delivered several speeches supporting such groups and movements.
The Haaretz Newspaper reports Danny Yatom, the former head of the Mossad, that Israel can implement some of its anti-Iran plans through the MKO (Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization). Israel should consider all possibilities, including military conflict with Iran, but it should not exclude the capacity of intermediaries such as the MKO who have collaborated with Tel Aviv in assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists. Israel is training and providing this group.
The former head of the Mossad added that the organization is apparently linked to Saudi Arabia and can be used in two ways by the Jewish nation and Riyadh.
They worked as a source of information regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Israel can indirectly use the organization on social networks to influence the Iranian people.
Former Mossad head Meir Dagan, in an interview with CBS, revealed that Israel is helping the MKO and armed terrorist groups whose mission is to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Saudi Arabia behind rapprochement between Israel and MEK
Saudi Arabia has for a long time been the main sponsor of MEK as it has been shown by the attendance of the influential figures of Saudi royal family in the meetings of the terrorist group in the European countries.
In recent years, the progress of Saudi Arabia’s relations with the Zionist regime and their common hostility towards Iran has become a factor for the Zionists to approach the MEK.
In the meantime, the Zionists deliver missions to the group in exchange for their financial and political support. The Rajavi group keeps an eye on Iran and spies on the country on behalf of the Israelis. Another mission that has been delivered to a group is infiltrating into the far right parties in Europe to secure their support.
Of course, the Zionists themselves have had their own separate relations with European far-right parties and are trying to advance their goals through the channel of the MEK. In this vein, the decline of anti-Semitism feeling among the far-right parties was also a change that resulted from Israel’s approach to these parties.
With regard to Israel’s rapprochement to the European far-right parties, “Orient XXI” (Socialist Revolution in Arabia) website wrote “it all began on 19 December 2010, when a sizeable delegation arrived in Tel Aviv, consisting of some 30 leaders of the European Alliance for Freedom. As its name fails to indicate, this was an organization comprised of a series of parties belonging to the radical right.
Orient XXI added, “it was the first time since the creation of Israel that the country had played host to such a sinister gathering, which included Geert Wilders of the Netherlands, Philip Dewinter from Belgium and Jorg Haider’s successor, Heinz-Christian Strache, from Austria.”
What were these neo-Fascists, who often denied the Holocaust and even worrying about the loss of the Third Reich, doing in Israel?
They [neo-Fascists] participated in a Conference organized by the right wing of Likud Party which was dedicated to fight against terrorism.
Despite the unofficial specification of this move, the then Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman had long negotiated with Wilders, known for his criticism of Islam, and he also compensated his blessing with the official visit of the settlements constructed on the West Bank of Jordan River.
According to the Air France Press (AFP), a man who had the dream of banning the Holy Quran in the Netherlands, “spoke against returning the occupied lands through making peace with Palestinians and raised the proposal of the voluntary settlement of Palestinians in Jordan” and then defended the settlements on West coast of Jordan River.
Everything is crystal clear that Israeli right- and right-extremism parties are ready in their “crusade” against the Palestinians to establish unity and amity even in the most unusual ones.
What is the reason for Israel to get closer to European extremist right-wing?
The obvious features of the emerging extremist parties in Europe are their opposition to traditional practices in European countries. For example, these parties weaken the convergence in Europe and undermined the position of the European Union in the international system.
Since the traditional European parties have a special look at democratic and human rights issues, they have always been critical of the Zionist regime’s actions against the Palestinians, and the European Union’s criticisms and condemnations of this regime has intensified in recent years. The Zionist regime is struggling to bring a deep divide between emerging and traditional parties through getting closer to the extremist right-wing parties in Europe, perhaps to reduce Brussels’s pressure on Tel Aviv.
Reducing Europe’s pressure on the Zionist regime means releasing Israel from a major dilemma. In other words, divisions among European countries and their challenge with emerging parties can be a factor in the advancement of the goals of the Zionist regime at a macro level. Therefore, given the financial support of the MKO for the European extremist right-wing and the link between the Cult of Rajavi with Saudi and Israeli channels, it (Cult) has become a factor used by Zionism to create a rift in Europe.
Hamid Bayati,
Nozar Shafeie, an expert on international affairs, has said that the European Union’s sanctions against an Iranian intelligence service over claims of Iran’s assassination plot is a “criminal” act.
“The act of Europe in giving shelter to groups opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran and imposing sanctions against the country because of those groups is criminal,” Mehr news agency quoted him as saying.
If European countries have the political will to continue cooperation with Iran they should not let terrorist groups do activities on their soil, he suggested.
Danish intelligence chief Finn Borch Andersen claimed in October that an Iranian intelligence service had tried to carry out a plot to assassinate an Iranian Arab opposition figure on Denmark’s soil.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi dismissed the claim as a plot by enemies to affect Tehran’s growing relations with European countries.
Anders Samuelsen, the Danish foreign minister, tweeted on Tuesday that the European Union agreed to enact sanctions against an Iranian Intelligence Service over claims of assassination plot.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has told Europeans that making accusations against Iran won’t absolve them of the responsibility for harboring the terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) – also called Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) — who has murdered tens of thousands Iranians.
“Europeans, incl Denmark, Holland & France, harbor MEK—who killed 12000 Iranians & abetted Saddam’s crimes against Iraqi Kurds—as well as other terrorists staging murder of innocent Iranians from Europe. Accusing Iran won’t absolve Europe of responsibility for harboring terrorists,” Zarif tweeted Tuesday.
The MKO did numerous terrorist acts in Iran, especially in the early years of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It also sided with Saddam Hussein’s army in the war against Iran in the 1980s.
Saddam also used the extremist group in violent crackdown on the Iraqi Kurds in the north and the Shiites in the south.
Iran not to stay in JCPOA at any cost, official warns Europe
The Special Assistant to the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament for International Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a tweet has said Iran will send “a shocking message” to Europe over commitment to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
“Having strong relations with Europe is a part of Iran’s foreign policy logics. But the West should face a shock to realize we won’t remain in one-way tunnel of current JCPOA at any cost,” Trend reports citing Amir-Abdollahian’s tweet.
The official’s tweet, apparently aimed at Europe’s delaying the opening of a Special Purpose Vehicle, also criticized the European countries’ harboring the People’s Mojahedin Organization (Mujaheedin-e Khalq or MEK), a political-militant organization based on Islamic and Socialist ideology.
“Now, safe Europe for terrorists and MEK has to get a logical, prudent but shocking message,” added Amir-Abdollahian.
Trend.az
TEHRAN – Iranian families of terror victims denounced Danish government’s support for terrorist and separatist groups in an open letter to the Ambassador of Denmark in Tehran.
Danish government’s sheltering of some anti-Iran terrorist groups including Khuzestan separatists was strongly condemned in this letter.
Read the full text of the letter below:
December 18, 2018
His Excellency Ambassador Danny Annan,
The Embassy of Denmark,
You’re Excellency,
On behalf of families of Iranian victims of terrorism, we are writing to you on the occasion of the dreadful terrorist attack in Ahvaz on September 22, 2018, which led to the death and injury of nearly 100 Iranian citizens.
Since the victory of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, our country has been a victim of high volume of subversive acts and terrorist operations in which more than 17,000 citizens have been killed and thousands of others have faced permanent injury, in addition to the destruction of the country’s infrastructure.
With the government’s all-round combat with terrorist groups in the early years after the Revolution, part of them were destroyed and another part were weakened. So, with the support from some regional and Western governments, these groups began relocation of their headquarters to those counties and from there, they started planning to commit terrorist operations in our country; an action that unfortunately still continues.
Among the European countries that put their territories at the disposal of these violent and terrorist groups, Denmark is also existed.
Dear Honorable Ambassador,
Unfortunately, your country has a bad record in harbouring Iranian terrorists, dating back to a few decades ago when you sheltered the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, a.k.a MEK, NCRI, PMOI, etc.), a group that was designated as a terrorist organization by some Western countries and the European Union. To this, one could add the hosting of Khuzestan’s separatist groups.
In addition to separatist acts, these criminal groups have also carried out massive terrorist operations; a measure that further clarifies the depth of the catastrophe of Copenhagen’s support for them.
The attack on the Iranian Embassy in London and the hostage taking of embassy staff; bombings in Ahvaz, Abadan and Dezful Governorates; bombings in Ahvaz’s Management and Planning Organization; bombings in Housing and Urban Development Organization of ; bombing Sugarcane Development Company of Khuzestan; Explosion of Abadan oil pipelines; bombing of the Khuzestan Natural Resources Directorate; bombing in Naderi avenue of Ahvaz; bombing of Saman Bank, Kian Pars district of Ahvaz; and armed attack on the tourist buses in Khouzestan province named ‘Rahyane Noor’, are parts of the terrorist crimes of separatist groups living in Denmark such as the ” Harakat al-Nazal al-Arabi li-Tahrir al-Ahwaz”.
To these you should add meetings and planning measures for sabotage and assassination inside Iran, the last of which, till this moment, has been the above-mentioned terrorist attack in Ahvaz on September 22, 2018, which these groups have claimed responsibility for.
Clearly without the Danish support for these groups, they could never freely operate and engage in planning terrorist and subversive acts. Therefore, this is the right of families of people who have fallen victim to the terror attacks and violence carried out by these groups, to point the finger at the Danish government.
Regardless of the terrorist history of these groups, your country has put its territory at the disposal of them; an issue that implies Denmark’s support for their actions in the killing of hundreds of Iranian citizens.
Your Excellency,
Our question to you is that if the terrorist attack on the parade of the armed forces of Iran on September 22 was carried out against the citizens of your country, what kind of actions would you put into your agenda? Would you still deal with the elements of that terrorist group with negligence? Basically, what types of actions would your government put on its agenda? Public opinion in Iran is looking forward to hearing your answer.
Dear Mr. Ambassador,
Families of victims of terror attacks committed by terrorist groups residing in Denmark, especially the survivors of the recent incident in Ahvaz, with the help of a number of lawyers, have filed lawsuits against the perpetrators of the incident, and the relating judicial process will begin shortly.
The Iranian people have always sympathized with European citizens in all the terrorist incidents that have taken place in Europe by extremist terrorist nodes in recent years and have condemned terrorism anywhere in the world to anyone. Mutually, they expect your government to respond to this sympathy with the flower branch, not with the support of the terrorists.
Your Excellency,
In the end, we would like to remind you that the failure of the European countries to deal seriously with the ISIL terrorists has led to a large number of terrorist operations in European cities. Terrorism knows neither ideology nor geography. The terrorists who attack innocent people with their psychological problems have the capability to use them anywhere in the world. Therefore, we recommend that you learn from the experience of ISIS operations in Europe and prevent these terror groups from operating in your country.
Sincerely yours,
Habilian Association (Families of Iranian victims of terrorism)
Professor Paul Pillar, who was CIA intelligence analyst for 28 years, tells the Tehran Times that “A rationale for removing the MEK from the U.S. terrorism list was that in recent years the group has not been involved in killing Americans.”
Pillar says terrorist group is still a terrorist group even if the blood it spills is not American blood. The MEK certainly has been involved in lethal political violence since 2009.
He also adds that “The sources of funds always have been unclear. The most likely sources are states that are regional rivals of Iran.”
Following is the text of the interview:
Q: Why Obama administration removed Mujahedin-e Khalq from a U.S. terrorism list and Trump administration seriously support of this terrorist group. Why?
A: This is not the first time–nor will it be the last–that decisions to add or remove groups from the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations have reflected politics and policy and have not been the result of an objective examination of the nature of the group. The MEK’s removal from the list came after a prolonged and well-financed lobbying campaign that succeeded in swaying politicians in both major parties, including many who have at most only slight knowledge of what the MEK has done.
Q: Trump administration support terrorist group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) as a democratic alternative to the current Iranian political system. Why Trump administration support a group that have not any social base among Iranians and Iranian know them as a terrorist group?
A: The Trump administration’s policy toward Iran consists of using every any means available to hurt and pressure Iran, while paying little attention to the nature of the means used or to the negative effects of using them. Although some of the administration’s rhetoric sounds as if greater democracy in Iran is one of its objectives, democracy plays little role in the administration’s decisions–as indicated, for example, by its strong siding with the regime in Saudi Arabia, which is decidedly non-democratic. If the MEK is opposed to the current political order in Tehran, that’s all that matters to the Trump administration.
Q: As you mentioned in your article in LobeLog many activities of Mujahedin-e Khalq need much money. Which countries or group may help to them?
A: The sources of funds always have been unclear. The most likely sources are states that are regional rivals of Iran.
Q: Mujahedin-e Khalq ideology is mixture of a version of Islam and Marxism. They also operate as a terrorist group. Why U.S. as a leading democratic country in the world support such a group? This is controversial when we consider that foreign policy according to the liberalism is the continuation of domestic policy and U.S. domestic policy is based on free values and liberalism. How U.S. government solve this contradiction?
A: The Trump administration clearly is not worrying about such things, because it has given ample other indications that it gives little importance to such values in conducting foreign relations. This became quite clear recently with its reaction to the killing of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, in which President Trump in effect said that such a murder can be excused as long as the Saudis buy U.S. weapons.
Q: According to the RAND report, Mujahedin-e Khalq terrorist activities have continued by 2009. But U.S. acclaimed that there are no terrorist activity by this group in 10 last years ago. Which one is right?
A: A rationale for removing the MEK from the U.S. terrorism list was that in recent years the group has not been involved in killing Americans. The law governing the list could be construed that way, although more often, decisions on listing and delisting are not made from such a narrow perspective. A terrorist group is still a terrorist group even if the blood it spills is not American blood. The MEK certainly has been involved in lethal political violence since 2009.
By Javad Heirannia,
Larijani says ‘practical actions’ needed to save nuclear deal
TEHRAN – Iranian Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani said on Tuesday that the European Union has been backing the nuclear deal politically but what is of utmost importance is “practical actions” by the bloc to keep the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Larijani made the remarks during a meeting in Tehran with French Senator Philippe Bonnecarrere, who heads the France-Iran friendship group in the upper house of parliament.
The parliament speaker said Iran has been committed to its obligations and Europe must take practical steps to preserve the JCPOA.
Larijani also said that presence of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) in France has caused a “negative mentality” of the French among the Iranians.
Bonnecarrere said that France does not support the MKO.
The MKO, who sided with Saddam Hussein during Iraq’s war against Iran in the 1980s, was removed from the list of terrorist organizations by the European Union and the United States in 2009 and 2012 respectively.
France hosts annual gathering of the MKO. Maryam Rajavi, who does not tolerate any criticism within her group, has been mockingly portraying herself as the leader of the opposition outside Iran.
‘France fully backs JCPOA’
Senator Bonnecarrere also said that France will make any effort to preserve the JCPOA.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s approach towards the JCPOA has portrayed a good image of the country in the international arena and France will use all of its possibilities to keep the agreement,” he said.
Bonnecarrere added that France is determined to expand ties and interaction with Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the nuclear agreement in May and reintroduced sanctions on Iran in August. The second wave of sanctions, which targets Iran’s oil exports and central bank, is due to start in early November.
On September 25, European Union foreign policy chief Mogherini announced that the bloc was creating a new payment mechanism to allow countries to transact with Iran while avoiding U.S. sanctions.
Mogherini’s announcement came after a meeting with foreign ministers from Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, and Iran on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, addressed a rally staged by an extreme Iranian opposition group in Paris on Saturday, calling for regime change in Tehran.
The extreme group, called Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MeK) or Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), has long history of assassinations and terrorist activities inside and outside Iran.
Analysts are of the opinion that Giuliani is either too stupid to know about this group, or he is being too much money to speak at the gathering, or he and other American hawks are so obsessed with animosity against Iran that they desperately to resort to extremely radical groups to show their teeth to Iran.
The Iranians refer to the MKO as monafeqin (hypocrites). They sided with Saddam Hussein in the war against Iran in the 1980s. The Saddam regime also used the group to suppress the Kurds and Shias in northern and southern Iraq.
The group was until recent years listed as a terrorist organization in the U.S. and Europe.
It is widely hated in Iran. It has close links to Israeli intelligence. Israel used the MKO operatives to assassinate a number of Iranian nuclear scientists just in the recent past.
The MKO is still widely viewed as a Marxist-Islamist cult built around the personality of its leader, Maryam Rajavi.
“We are now realistically being able to see an end to the regime in Iran,” Giuliani told a crowd of about 4,000, many of them refugees and young eastern Europeans who had been bussed in to attend the rally in return for a weekend trip to Paris.
Ridiculously, Giuliani said the current ruling system in Iran “must be replaced by a democratic government which Madam Rajavi represents”.
In remarks which looked like a joke, Giuliani said, “Next year I want to have this convention in Tehran!” the Guardian reported.
The former New York mayor, who became a cyber security adviser in the White House before being named as Trump’s personal lawyer in April, is one of a long line of American conservative hawks to attend the MKO annual conference. Another guest on Saturday was Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker and a close Trump ally.
Giuliani also claimed that the protests in Iran, which were driven by a devaluation of national currency and a rise in prices, was being orchestrated from outside.
“Those protests are not happening spontaneously,” Giuliani said.
The guest of honor at last year’s MKO conference was John Bolton, who has since become Trump’s third national security adviser. Bolton told the 2017 rally U.S. policy should be to make sure the Islamic Republic “will not last until its 40th birthday” –1 April 2019.
Giuliani was one of 33 senior U.S. officials and military brass at the year’s conference on Saturday. Bill Richardson, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, U.S. energy secretary and Democratic governor of New Mexico, was also in attendance.
Stephen Harper, former prime minister of Canada, also delivered a speech advocating regime change in Iran.
It was unclear if the speakers at the Saturday conference were paid. The NCRI and MeK have been known for paying very high fees. The money mostly comes from Saudi Arabia.
In sweltering temperatures on Saturday, around 4,000 people arrived by bus at the Parc des expositions centre. Many were draped in the MeK flag, which replaces the sign for “Allah” on the Iranian flag with a yellow lion. Others wore yellow sun hats displaying the hashtag “#Maryam Rajavi”.
Around half of the attendees were Iranian. The other half consisted of an assortment of bored-looking Poles, Czechs, Slovakians, Germans and Syrians who responded to a Facebook campaign promising travel, food and accommodation to Paris for a mere €25. Hundreds of Syrian refugees settled in Germany also attended. Many snoozed under trees during speeches.
“We saw the deal on Facebook and we agreed to come on a holiday,” said a young Syrian mother as she sat on the conference floor, fanning her two young children. “I have never seen Paris. I don’t know anything about the MeK.”