Page 179 – Nejat Society

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

How one terror group killed 12k Iranians

Thirst for blood

The US-backed Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) has a dark history of assassinations and bombings targeting both Iranian statesmen and people, making the country one of the major victims of terrorism in the world.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Documentary/PressTV_Blood_Thirsty.mp4

The dying group, which is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community, had collaborated with the former US-backed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during his imposed war on Iran in the 1980s in addition to killing as many as 12,000 Iranians in a violent campaign of terrorist bombings.

Despite the group’s gruesome terror campaign early after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, the MKO was effectively neutralized in the country and forced to seek refuge in Iraq under the protection of Saddam Hussein.

Known to most other countries by another acronym, the MEK, the terrorist group is financed by the Saudis, publicized by the Israelis and following America’s agenda.

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.

Despite US and Saudi attempts to empower the MKO, the cult-like group’s activities have been largely limited to its now aging pool of members who had originally joined the group in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

According to the British daily The Guardian, the MKO is even known to rely on busing refugees and young eastern Europeans to fill up its lavish events in Europe, where most of the group’s members are known to reside.

The group throws lavish conferences every year in Paris, with certain American, Western, and Saudi officials as its guests of honor.

These include former US national security advisor John Bolton, US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, and former Saudi Arabian spy chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal.

US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has attended an event held by notorious MKO terrorists in Paris and called for regime change in Iran.

The group is well-known for its reliance on fake social media profiles to push for its Washington-backed anti-Iran agenda.

Last year, Iranian Foreign Minster Mohammad Javad Zarif slammed Twitter for blocking social media accounts of”real Iranians”while overlooking social media influence operations coming from”actual bots in Tirana,”referring to the group’s large complex near the Albanian capital.

Amid the Trump Administration’s heightened rhetoric and campaign of”maximum pressure”against Iran, the MKO has also sought to gain further support from Washington and its allies by expanding its anti-Iran operations.

Back in June, an unverified audio tape leaked from the organization suggested the group may have colluded with foreign powers in carrying out mysterious explosions targeting two oil tankers in the Persian Gulf in June.

The terrorist group also announced a plan to assassinate commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Qassem Soleimani and the country’s new Judiciary chief Ebrahim Raeisi.

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.

An ex-member of the anti-Iran MKO terror group details the Saudi transfer of almost $200 million worth of gold to the notorious outfit.

The MKO was once listed as a terrorist organization in the US and Europe and is still widely viewed as a Marxist cult built around the personality of its leader, Maryam Rajavi.

Some of its uncouth practices include forcing the group’s male members to divorce their wives and have them married to Rajavi’s husband Massoud.

The terrorist group is also known for its extremely suppressive control over members in its camps where access to the Internet and other information sources is prohibited.

November 16, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Saudi pays all expenses of the MEK annual conference

Promotion of terror by false harbinger of peace

While Saudi Arabia proclaims itself as a harbinger of peace in the region and around the world, its crimes recorded in various parts of the world well illustrate its full support for “global terrorism”.

Nowadays Saudi Arabia has been taking a different stance trying to show itself as a supporter of peace in the region to cover up its crimes as one of the main supporters of global terrorism.

In order to divert public opinion from focusing on their crimes in different places, the Saudis are also trying to address the public opinion that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the resistance groups in the region are the promoters of terrorism.

Support for ISIL and al-Qaeda

Saudi Arabia is currently the reason for killing people in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and even Lebanon because of its expanded support of terrorist groups in recent years. Its support for the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group in recent years, especially in Syria and Iraq, has caused the killing of thousands of civilians, including women and children.

Diplomatic documents leaked by the Qatari Embassy in Washington on 26 October 2016, showed also the support of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan for some al-Qaeda and ISIL terrorist leaders in Yemen.

According to the documents, the two crown princes of Saudi Arabia and UAE have been in constant contact with two of Al-Qaeda affiliated members Al-Hassan Ali Abkar and Abdullah Faisal al-Ahdel. The documents provide details of the activities of two al-Qaeda commanders as well as direct donations from Saudi intelligence chief Khalid bin Ali Al Humaidan to purchase supplies and give to ISIL members.

In this regard, Shireen Tahmaasb Hunter, a professor of political science at Georgetown University in the US believes that Saudi Wahhabi ideology is a key factor in the formation of the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group.

Full-fledged defense of ‘state terrorism’

Saudi Arabia has always been a strong supporter of the Zionist regime over the past decades as a prominent example of promoting”state terrorism”. It normalizes relations with Israel faster than other Arab countries. This is the same issue that the Zionists have mentioned on many occasions without referring directly to Saudi Arabia.

Moreover, a series of secret meetings between Saudi officials and the Zionist regime’s indicate that the Al-Saud has associated with the Zionist regime the most prominent example of “state terrorism”.

In this connection, on the sidelines of a recent UN General Assembly meeting in New York City, Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir secretly met with Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz.

Trade and military exchanges between the Zionist regime and Saudi Arabia are also among other areas of close relations between the two sides, which have made the Zionists more insolence in killing Palestinians.

According to what has been said, the Saudi authorities will undoubtedly play a major role in continuing the terrorist acts of the Zionist regime in the occupied territories against the Palestinians by defending “state terrorism” of the Zionist regime.

Establishment of a terrorist coalition against the Yemeni people

The establishment of a terrorist coalition against the defenseless and innocent Yemeni people is another Saudi activity in promoting terrorism and extremism in the region and around the world. Saudi Arabia formed a coalition of 17 countries to attack Yemen illegally and brutally in 2015. Since then, the Saudis have martyred thousands of people and injured hundreds in Yemen.

Its aggressive attacks on innocent Yemeni people in the form of a terrorist and illegal coalition have already caused fatal blows to the poorest Arab country. They also bombed all the medical centers. This has caused 80% of medical centers in Yemen to fail to provide medical services.

Because of the series of crimes against Yemeni people, even the former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, put Saudi Arabia on the list of Yemeni children’s rights violations. But threatened by Saudi authorities to cut funding to the UN, made him withdraw from his decision.

Support for MEK and the Ba’ath regime

The history of the terrorist activities of the terrorist group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) is obvious to everyone which killed many Iranians in the early years of the victory of the Islamic Revolution. However, Saudi Arabia is one of the main supporters of MEK, and at the same time proclaims itself a harbinger of peace in the region and around the world and accuses others of supporting terrorism.

According to Norwegian media, the Saudi Embassy in France pays all expenses for holding the annual conference of the MEK terrorist group in Paris.

The Saudis also continue to support the remnants of the Ba’ath regime in Iraq. Saudi ambassador to Jordan Khaled bin Faisal Al-Saud has met and held talks with Raghad Hussein daughter of Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq in Amman, according to media.

During the meeting, the two sides discussed the latest developments in Iraq and how to further provoke protests against the Baghdad government and create chaos in Iraq. It is said that the Saudi ambassador to Jordan has offered an invitation to Raghad Hussein to attend a meeting on Iraq which will be held in Riyadh in the coming month.

What has been said is only a small fraction of Saudi Arabia’s support for terrorism around the world, and there are now numerous reports of Saudi Arabia’s promotion of terrorism, Wahhabism and extremism in East Asia and Africa.
By Ramin Hossein Abadian,

November 13, 2019 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

MEK may conduct terror attacks in Europe

MEK may conduct terror attacks in Europe and place the blame on Tehran, says expert

An expert on U.S. foreign policy believes the Mojahedin-e Khalq terrorist organization may carry out acts of terror and sabotage in Europe and place the blame on Tehran.

“The group has had ample experience in carrying out killings and assassinations. The cult will not even allow members to defect,” said Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich, in an interview with the Balkans Post.

“I would not be surprised if a group member, or several, carry out acts of terror and sabotage in Europe and place the blame on Tehran. Perhaps that is the plan for them,” she added.

Here’s the full transcript of the interview:

Balkans Post: In a piece published by the Washington Post in September, Shahin Gobadi, spokesman of the anti-Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) terrorist group, claimed that “a cursory review of the MEK’s history shows it has survived and flourished for 54 years, not because of having a voice in the White House but because of its reliance solely on the Iranian people and because it has been willing to pay the price for democracy in blood and treasure.” What could you say about these remarks?

Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich: The publication of this piece in the Washington Post is not without irony. The Jeff Bezos owned Washington Post is a private enterprise with deep pockets that passes itself as a ‘news’ outlet. Regrettably, the Washington Post that lends its pages to a cult’s propaganda is a very sharp departure from the Washington Post that in the past earned dozens of Pulitzer prizes. The Post is best remembered for publishing the Pentagon Papers – a secret government study about the Vietnam War. In a sharp departure from those days, the current owner of Washington Post is making deals with the Pentagon. In the same vein, the MEK Shahin Gobadi writes of has departed sharply from the MEK that was founded in 1965.

For the first few years, the MEK was dedicated to fighting America’s friendly dictator, the Shah of Iran, capitalism, and Western imperialism. But in 1975, there was an ideological split within the group at which time the group declared that Marxism, not Islam, was the true revolutionary philosophy (expressed in a book entitled Manifesto on Ideological Issues). It was at this stage that they resorted to terrorism.

The Americans in Iran became their primary target and they wounded or killed high profile military personnel in Iran and are said to have been actively involved in the U.S. embassy takeover.

In an about-face, the group became the pet terrorists of the very “Western Empire” they had set out to fight. Their existence was necessary to America to rid Iran of the Islamic government that had overthrown their man in Tehran. Thus the terror activities and assassinations once conducted against Americans in Iran were directed at the new Islamic government in Iran. The terror group and their backers promoted the notion that the MEK was not responsible for assassinations of Americans and those acts of terror were carried by rogue elements within the group was promoted.

The lies continue to spread. The MEK has zero validity and support inside Iran. And frankly, fewer still outside of Iran. But they have a great deal of political support in America, Britain, and Israel. Not only do prominent American politicians on both side of the aisle support the group, but neoconservatives and the pro-Israeli think tanks. They also got “protection” from an online organization head by Rabbi Daniel M. Zucker through its online publication “International Analyst Network” and “Global Politician.”

So to sum up, the group has departed sharply from its origins and is the same in name only, and it would not have survived without the backing of influential politicians and organization. The only price paid in ‘blood’ was that of the people it terrorized and killed.

BP: Described by critics as “a cult”, the MEK has been lauded by top U.S. officials as alternative to Iran’s government. How has the group gained the support of such influential people?

Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich: Personally, I do not believe that the U.S. sees them as an alternative to the government in Iran. They use the group to undermine Tehran while enticing them with promises. The support of ‘influential people’ is not for the group, or its ideology, but for the harm it can do to Tehran. The more sensitivity Iran shows towards this cult, the more the U.S. and Israel dangle the group in front of the Islamic Republic.

I think that is very important to understand them in this context. The United States has a stated policy of not negotiating with terrorists, but it has a habit of using terrorists to achieve its goals. If and when the objective is reached, the terrorists would become dispensable – undesirable.

BP: Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has described the organization as a fringe group with mysterious benefactors that garners scant support in its home country. Is there any evidence to show who these “mysterious benefactors” are?

Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich: Some former MEK members have stated that they have witnessed Saudi Arabia giving money and gold to the group. I believe that may have been in much later years. At the onset of the Iranian Revolution, Saudi Arabia was more interested in restoring the monarchy and the deposed Shah’s son. Of course, in the 80’s, their benefactor was the “Butcher of Baghdad”, Saddam Hossein.

The political support from Israel is unquestionable and there is plenty of literature on this. However, in 2012, the NBC broke out a story that was repeated everywhere – that Israel had “financed, trained, and armed” the MEK.

Certainly, while the MEK were being protected and chauffeured around in Camp Ashraf – Iraq as ‘special status person/s’, surely the U.S. government would have been responsible for their maintenance.

BP: The MEK operates out of a compound in rural Albania. How has the group’s presence in that region impacted the Balkans in general and Albania in particular?

Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich: It is beyond the scope of my research to address the impact the presence of MEK operatives has had on the Balkans. But what is very clear is that the United States had a 4-year plan (2011-2015) to give aid to Albania in order to advance U.S. objectives related to Albania’s role in moving forward U.S. foreign policy objective. The initial consequence of this ‘generosity’ was to demand Albanian house thousands of terrorists. It appears that a terrorist group that was protected by the United States in Iraq is now protected by the Unites States in the Europe.

The group has had ample experience in carrying out killings and assassinations. The cult will not even allow members to defect. I would not be surprised if a group member, or several, carry out acts of terror and sabotage in Europe and place the blame on Tehran. Perhaps that is the plan for them.

Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich has a Master’s in Public Diplomacy from USC Annenberg for Communication. She is an independent researcher and writer with a focus on U.S. foreign policy and the role of the lobby. Her articles have been published by several online publications. She is a public speaker. She is balkanspost.com

November 13, 2019 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

MEK Terrorist Cult Members In Albania Who Mustn’t Think About Sex

For six years, Albania has been home to one of Iran’s main opposition groups, the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, or MEK. But hundreds of members have walked out – some complaining about the organisation’s rigid rules enforcing celibacy, and control over contact with family. Now, dozens languish in the Albanian capital, Tirana, unable to return to Iran or get on with their lives.

“I didn’t speak to my wife and son for over 37 years – they thought I’d died. But I told them, ‘No, I’m alive, I’m living in Albania…’ They cried.”

That first contact by phone with his family after so many years was difficult for Gholam Mirzai, too. He is 60, and absconded two years ago from the MEK’s military-style encampment outside Tirana.

Now he scrapes by in the city, full of regrets and accused by his former Mujahideen comrades of spying for their sworn enemy, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The MEK has a turbulent and bloody history. As Islamist-Marxist radicals, its members backed the 1979 Iranian revolution that toppled the Shah. But relations with a triumphant Ayatollah Khomeini soon soured. When the government cracked down hard, the Mujahideen had to run for their lives.

Neighbouring Iraq offered sanctuary, and from their desert citadel during the Iran/Iraq war (1980-1988), the MEK fought on the side of Saddam Hussein against their homeland.

Gholam Mirzai was serving in the Iranian military when he was captured by Saddam Hussein’s forces at the start of that conflict. He spent eight years as a prisoner of war in Iraq. But in time, Iranian prisoners like Mirzai were encouraged to join forces with their compatriots. And that is what he did.

Mirzai is now a “disassociate” – one of hundreds of former MEK members who have left the organisation since they moved to Albania. With the help of funds from family, some have paid people smugglers to take them elsewhere in Europe, and perhaps two have made it back to Iran. But dozens remain in Tirana, stateless and officially unable to work.

So how did the battle-hardened members of the MEK – formerly a proscribed terrorist organisation in the United States and Europe – find their way to this corner of Europe?

In 2003, the allied invasion of Iraq made life perilous for the MEK. The organisation’s protector, Saddam Hussein, was suddenly gone, and the Mujahideen were repeatedly attacked – hundreds were killed and injured. Fearing an even worse humanitarian disaster, the Americans approached the Albanian government in 2013 and persuaded it to receive some 3,000 MEK members in Tirana.

MEK Terrorist Cult Members In Albania Who Mustn’t Think About SexFemale MEK fighters training during the Iran/Iraq war (1984)

“We offered them shelter from attacks and abuse, and the possibility to lead a normal life in a country where they are not harassed, attacked or brutalised,” says Lulzim Basha, leader of the Democratic Party, which was in government at the time, and is now in opposition.

In Albania, politics are deeply polarised – everything is contested. But, almost uniquely, the presence of the MEK isn’t – publicly, both governing and opposition parties support their Iranian guests.

For the MEK, Albania was a completely new environment. Gholam Mirzai was astonished that even children had mobile phones. And because some of the Mujahideen were initially accommodated in apartment buildings on the edge of the capital, the organisation’s grip on its members was looser than it had been previously. In Iraq, it had controlled every aspect of their lives, but here, temporarily, there was a chance to exercise a degree of freedom.

“There was some rough ground behind the flats where the commanders told us we should take daily exercise,” remembers Hassan Heyrany, another “disassociate”.

Heyrany and his colleagues used the cover of trees and bushes to sneak around to the internet cafe close by and make contact with their families.

“When we were in Iraq, if you wanted to phone home, the MEK called you weak – we had no relationship with our families,” he says. “But when we came to Tirana, we found the internet for personal use.”

Towards the end of 2017, though, the MEK moved out to new headquarters. The camp is built on a gently sloping hill in the Albanian countryside, about 30km (19 miles) from the capital. Behind the imposing, iron gates, there is an impressive marble arch topped with golden lions. A tree-lined boulevard runs up to a memorial dedicated to the thousands of people who have lost their lives in the MEK’s struggle against the Iranian government.

Uninvited journalists are not welcome here. But in July this year, thousands attended the MEK’s Free Iran event at the camp. Politicians from around the globe, influential Albanians and people from the nearby village of Manze, joined thousands of MEK members and their leader, Maryam Rajavi, in the glitzy auditorium. US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, addressed the crowd.

Rudy Giuliani: “If you think this is a cult, then there’s something wrong with you”

“These are people who are dedicated to freedom,” he said, referring to the uniformly dressed and gender-segregated MEK members present in the hall.

“And if you think that’s a cult, then there’s something wrong with you,” he added, bringing the house down.

Powerful politicians like Giuliani support the MEK’s goal of regime change in Iran. The movement’s manifesto includes a commitment to human rights, gender equality and participatory democracy for Iran.

But Hassan Heyrany does not buy it any more. Last year he left the MEK, rejecting what he saw as the leadership’s oppressive control of his private life. Heyrany had joined the Mujahideen in his 20s, attracted by its commitment to political pluralism.

“It was very attractive. But if you believe in democracy, you cannot suppress the soul of your members,” he says.

The nadir of Heyrany’s life with the MEK was an evening meeting he was obliged to attend.

“We had a little notebook, and if we had any sexual moments we should write them down. For example, ‘Today, in the morning, I had an erection.’”

Romantic relationships and marriage are prohibited by the MEK. It was not always like that – parents and their children used to join the Mujahideen. But after the bloody defeat of one MEK offensive by the Iranians, the leadership argued it had happened because the Mujahideen were distracted by personal relationships. Mass divorce followed. Children were sent away – often to foster homes in Europe – and single MEK members pledged to stay that way.

Hasan Heyrani, MKO former member in Tirana

In that notebook, Heyrany says they also had to write any personal daydreams.

“For example, ‘When I saw a baby on television, I had a feeling that I wished to have a child or a family of my own.’”

And the Mujahideen had to read from their notebooks in front of their commander and comrades at the daily meeting.

“That’s very hard for a person,” Heyrany says.

Now he likens the MEK camp in Manze to Animal Farm, George Orwell’s critique of the Stalinist era in the USSR. “It’s a cult,” he says simply.

A diplomatic source in Tirana described the MEK as “a unique cultural group – not a cult, but cult-like.”

The BBC was not able to put any of this to the MEK, because the organisation refused to be interviewed. But in Albania, a nation that endured a punishing, closed, Communist regime for decades there is some sympathy for the MEK leadership’s position – at least on the prohibition of personal relationships.

“In extreme situations, you make extreme choices,” says Diana Culi, a writer, women’s activist and former MP for the governing Socialist Party.

“They have vowed to fight all their lives for the liberation of their country from a totalitarian regime. Sometimes we have difficulty accepting strong belief in a cause. This is personal sacrifice, and it’s a mentality I understand.”

Even so, some Albanians worry that the MEK’s presence threatens national security.

Two Iranian diplomats were expelled following allegations about violent plots against the Mujahideen, and the European Union has accused Tehran of being behind conspiracies to assassinate regime opponents, including MEK members, on Dutch, Danish and French soil. (The Iranian Embassy in Tirana declined the BBC’s request for an interview.)

A highly-placed source in the Socialist Party is also concerned that the intelligence services lack the capacity to monitor more than 2,500 MEK members with military training.

“No-one with a brain would’ve accepted them here,” he says.

A diplomat says some of the “disassociates” are certainly working for Iran. Gholam Mirzai and Hassan Heyrany have themselves been accused by the MEK of being agents for Tehran. It is a charge they deny.

Now both men are focused on the future. With help from family in Iran, Heyrany is opening a coffee shop, and he is dating an Albanian. At 40, he is younger than most of his fellow cadres and he remains optimistic.

Gholam Mirzai’s situation is more precarious. His health is not good – he walks with a limp after being caught in one of the bombardments of the MEK camp in Iraq – and he is short of money.

He is tormented by the mistakes he has made in his life – and something he found out when he first got in touch with his family.

When Mirzai left to go to war against Iraq in 1980, he had a one-month-old son. After the Iran/Iraq war ended, his wife and other members of his family came to the MEK camp in Iraq to look for Mirzai. But the MEK sent them away, and told him nothing about their visit.

This 60-year-old man never knew he was a much-missed father and husband until he made that first call home after 37 years.

“They didn’t tell me that my family came searching for me in Iraq. They didn’t tell me anything about my wife and son,” he says.

“All of these years I thought about my wife and son. Maybe they died in the war… I just didn’t know.”

BBC Albania MEK Rajavi Cult 9

Gholam Mirzai in Tirana today

The son he has not seen in the flesh since he was a tiny baby is nearly 40 now. And Mirzai proudly displays a picture of this grown-up man on his WhatsApp id. But renewed contact has been painful too.

“I was responsible for this situation – the separation. I can’t sleep too much at night because I think about them. I’m always nervous, angry. I am ashamed of myself,” Mirzai says.

Shame is not easy to live with. And he has only one desire now.

“I want to go back to Iran, to live with my wife and son. That is my wish.”

Gholam Mirzai has visited the Iranian Embassy in Tirana to ask for help, and his family have lobbied the authorities in Tehran. He has heard nothing. So he waits – without citizenship, without a passport, and dreaming of home.
Linda Pressly and Albana Kasapi, BBC News

November 12, 2019 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Albanian MEK Ashraf Camp Is a Prison

Without a Trace finds the Mojahedin accused of being terrorists: MEK camp is a prison! In Iran, MEK ordered us to kill people

Former members of the Mojahedin who fled the Iranian opposition’s camp in Manez and were then accused of terrorism, gave evidence in an interview with Without a Trace of the massacres that the former terrorist fighters, MEK, committed in Iran. They consider the camp in Manez a prison, they say they have left because they want to live freely.
Testimony: Some Albanian officials have been corrupted by this organization, this means we are not allowed to work, nor have a residence permit. It’s a fanatical organization. They want us in prison.

https://dlb.nejatngo.org/Media/Interview/ReportTV_MEK.mp4

TIRANA – Three Iranian refugees, former members of the Iranian opposition MEK in Albania, who have left the organization, deny the allegations made against them. Hassan Hayrani, Abdurrahman Mohammad Jan, Gholam Reza Shekari were all described by Ali Safavi, a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, as agents of the Iranian regime who should be urgently arrested and expelled from Albania as they pose a danger to them, although their location was not known.
The Without a Trace show on Report TV investigated the case by finding out not only the whereabouts of the three aforementioned Iranians, but also conducted this lengthy interview with them. They live in Albania, in the Fresco area on the outskirts of Tirana, with a residence permit renewed every three months, and have dismissed all the allegations by clarifying their positions in the MEK organization they previously belonged to.
In an interview with Without a Trace, former members of the Mojahedin give evidence of the massacres that their former terrorist comrades have committed in Iran. These statements come shortly after the release of information by Albanian police that a year earlier it had prevented a terrorist attack on MEK members and that several persons, agents of the Iranian regime, had been identified as responsible. While they consider the camp in Manez to be a prison, these former members say they have left because they want to live freely.

Interviews conducted by the investigative editorial board of Without a Trace

Hassan Heyrani- MKO defector interview with Report TV

Hassan Hayrani: My name is Hassan, I am a former MEK member. After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2010, I joined the organization. After a few years with them, I left the organization about a year and a half ago. And now I live here at Fresco, and thankfully this is the best opportunity for me.

When were you recruited by the MEK organization?

Hassan Hayrani: At first we came here after the leader of the organization promised us that the situation would change once we arrived in Albania. But sadly, after about a year, MEK leaders, with money coming from Saudi Arabia, set up a prison rather than a camp in Manez, similar to those in Iraq. There are other people in there who unfortunately can’t get out of this situation in Manez. We asked the leaders of the organization why are you forbidding us from having a family, forbidding outside contacts, no internet or freedom, and why do you say we are fighting for the freedom of the people of Iran, when you don’t allow freedom within the organization. They told us that they do not believe that these are the conditions inside and that they believe in freedom. The leaders of the organization told us that these conditions were there for our benefit at a time when Saddam Hussein was overthrown and the Iranian regime was spreading terror, and so under these conditions we agreed. But if you go to Manez, you will see that it’s like a prison, and that security is done with a shotgun. So, it’s just like a prison.

Did you receive an order to carry out a mission there?
As for the organization, I joined after the fall of Saddam Hussein. At that time the organization had no operations against Iran. But we had some attacks by the Iraqi government because the organization did not follow their laws. There were some conflicts between them, and members of the organization were involved in these conflicts.

Are there any dangerous persons in this organization in Albania?
No, they do not have dangerous persons, because Albania is a safe country. There is no need for this to become a battleground either. But the leaders of the organization only want to turn the camp into a jail, to keep those living in Manez confined. The leader of this camp does not want members of this organization to have contact with other people outside this camp. And on the other hand, it does not want out-of-camp people to have contact with the people inside. For example, there have been cases where journalists have not even been allowed to interview persons living in Manez on the grounds that their news organization is affiliated with the Iranian secret service and they fear a terrorist attack. This is laughable. They only want us to have the toughest conditions here.
We escaped MEK without conflict, we are just looking for a quiet life. We have no problem with either the Albanian citizens or the Albanian government. We have been living here for 3 years, and we are free, we are living a peaceful life. We have no problem. It’s MEK who doesn’t tolerate us here.

Who is accusing you?
The Mojahedin Organization called MEK, which you have already heard of, accuse us of being mercenaries, agents of the Iranian regime, they reported that to every journalist and media outlet here. Because we broke away from this organization to lead a civilian life and we now lead lives as civilians, they don’t allow us to do that. Our existence in this country, as free and civilized people, encourages other members to leave this organization.

How did you become part of this organization?
From my experience in this organization there are some people I know of, some Albanian officials who are corrupted by this organization and do not let us work, nor have a residence permit. It’s a fanatical organization. They’d love us to be in prison.

When were you recruited by the MEK organization?
I’ve been a part of it for 28 years and have spent much of my life, my youth, with them.
I have given so much of my life, all they wanted from me. I decided to break away from this organization to have a free life. After all these years I have known about the terrorist acts carried out earlier, and that now they want to fall into American hands, I don’t agree with this, this is sufficient for me to want to live my life as a civilian. My free life here consists of all this. I lost all my life, maybe a lot, maybe a little. After so many years I found out about the free world, the free life and I wanted to live it. And when I saw free life here I decided to break away from this organization.
I decided to leave the organization three years ago. Now I live in Tirana.
A few days ago, the spokesman of this organization, of which I was a member, accused me of being an Iranian agent as well as a terrorist. He has no basis for this nor to ask the government to arrest me. This is faked news because they do not want me and my friends to live freely. This has created problems by limiting us and our lives here, they want to force us to move to another country, illegally if necessary. But even if we wanted to go to another country, we cannot because we have no documents.

What is the purpose of this organization?
When I decided to leave this organization, they were ordering us and dictating rules for us. They said, If you leave, we will pay for you, you can spend our money, but you have to obey some rules, such as: you can’t talk to anyone and you can’t live as you want. We will tell you who you should live with and what to do. I did not accept this and so received no money from the organization.

Then why did you accept to be a part of MEK for 30 years?
I really trusted this organization at first. When I joined, I believed. I believed in freedom, in democracy. I thought that the people in Iran would live freely. That MEK would bring democracy. But little by little I realized that this organization was a lie and that democracy would not come and that the only ones enjoying power were the leadership.

Did you witness the massacres in Iraq?

When I was in Iraq, in 1998 maybe, I don’t remember well, I was in an operation in Kurdistan. In this operation I was the shooter and the one driving the tank. And during this operation I was ordered to kill people, to carry out a massacre there.

Have you been ordered by MEK to commit terrorist acts?
When I was in MEK, I was part of a group that would go to Iran and were ordered to commit terrorist acts; to detonate a bomb and kill people as terrorists.
I was part of a group, and there were plenty of groups who went to Iran to do the same thing, to kill people.
A small group consisted of 3 or 5 people and we went to Iran after crossing the border and went to several Iranian cities and killed some civilians.
I was in that group, but to my good fortune I didn’t act because I wasn’t ready to do it, physically, my body wasn’t ready to do it. And that mission was given to another person in the squad.

We ask the Albanian government to give us a residency permit, or another document to allow us to have a better situation. We need work, to make money. We need help.

Some of my friends are trying to earn money by doing business. Now we have spent all the money in the [Ramsa charity] package. My mom, my brother sent me money to help me make my life here.
Forty years ago, I was living with my family. When I was a soldier sent to the war front, I was a prisoner of war for 9 years during the Iran-Iraq war. Then I was with the Mojahedin for 20 years. For 40 years I have seen no one in my family. For 30 years I had no contact with them, because in MEK there were rules, no one, no one was allowed to call their family.

I’ve spent 20 years of my life with MEK and after that, I live as a civilian today. For a long time I had realized how great a lie MEK was. I spent 5 months in jail under them and was under great physical and psychological pressure. I decided to leave the organization. Why am I accused of being a terrorist when I am living a free life? I have also given an interview to the German media.
I work here in Tirana, work in the duralum, do electrical work, paint houses. I work for a living. I work from 8am to 8pm. How can I be a terrorist. Here’s my hands, how can I commit terrorist acts once I’m back from work.

I was with MEK for 30 years, and I’ve been separated from MEK for a year and a half. I heard talk of news that we were accused of terrorism. In this organization everything we did was restricted. Even inside MEK the members were abused about this news, that we were terrorists and that we needed to be arrested.
Shqiptarja, translated by Iran Interlink

November 11, 2019 0 comments

Albania

Victims of MEK crimes in Albania appeal to President Meta for help

Dear Ilir Meta, Albanian President,

Your Excellency,
We are a group of former MEK members. We have separated from this organization and have lived with all due respect for the laws of your country for several years now. We have pursued our personal lives as civilians in Albania and that is why we left the MEK who have been abusing us for many, many years.

We came to your country legally and have not acted contrary to its laws and we are bound by its laws. That is why we expect to be treated with dignity and to be treated in accordance with the laws.
Unfortunately, we are witnessing some acts that concern us, including a recent case of a friend of ours, Ehsan Bidi, who has been disrespected by your police, arrested and taken to prison without access to a lawyer or any legal advice. He doesn’t even have the right to visits.

Ehsan Bidi

Ehsan Bidi has lived in your country for 6 years, has a 10-year residency permit from the Albanian government and is a refugee by all international standards. He, as a human being, has the right to know why and with what legal authority and with what permission and for what crime he has been arrested, and he has the right to a fair trial and to defend himself. A right that that is accorded to all people in all the civilized countries of the world.
We are sure that the plot to detain Mr Bidi was designed by the Mojahedin Khalq Organization and those who took bribes from this organization. We have received information that commanders in the MEK announced in a meeting that they had planned for Ehsan Bidi to be arrested and that this would be carried out by their friends in the Albanian government, and that they would carry out the same plan for the remaining former members who do not cooperate with us.
Europe’s Extreme Right Is In Bed With MEK (Mojahedin Khalq and Alejo Vidal-Quadras)

Mr President,
On Friday September 13, you visited the MEK camp, but we know that you have been misinformed about this organization. We have enough information about this organization and its dreadful internal relations, and whenever you request it we are ready to present this information to you; the MEK is a terrorist and inhumane organization that does not even have mercy on its members. We have all been members of this organization for decades and are well acquainted with its cruel, inhuman and mafia-like functions.
This organization does not have mercy on us, people who have spent our lives with them and served them all those years and who only seek now to pursue our lives as ordinary civilians because we refuse to further sacrifice our lives for the anti-Iranian goals of this organization.

Mr President,
As your country prepares to accede to the European Union, we urge you, as the national symbol and supreme supporter of law and human rights of Albania, to support us the victims of the plots of this organization. In the name of humanity please prevent this injustice, and do not allow the rights of the innocent to be harmed.

Our kind regards and best wishes for you,

1- Mohammad Azim Mishmast
2- Hadi Sani Khani
3- Hassan Heyrani
4- Abdolrahman Mohammadian
5- Hassan Shahbaz
6- Ali Hajari
7- Ehsan Bidi
8- Gholam Mirzai
9- Malek bit Mashal
10- Moussa Damroudi
11- Gholamreza shekari
12- Parviz Heydarzade

iran-azadi-albania.info

November 10, 2019 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 263

++ This week MEK were intending to visit the US Senate using the Organization of Iranian American Communities as a front. Ali Akbar Rastgu of Aawa Association wrote a letter to the head of the Senate warning that these people are in fact MEK, and enclosed documents showing MEK’s history of killing Americans, cheering for 9/11, support for Saddam and pointing out that the US attacked Iraq in 2003 partly because of them. Also, Davoud Baghervand Arshad in Germany published details of the things MEK has done against Americans and American interests, even while they were pretending to be on the side of America.

++ Massoud and Maryam Rajavi have become avid supporters of the uprising in Iraq – in fact the whole MEK system is backing the protests. Some comments joked about the fact that Massoud is dead and yet is still talking. Another said – ‘the MEK are excited that what they call “rebellion nucleuses” are using tuc tucs and claim this will topple the regime. Maryam, who used to stand on Saddam’s tanks, is now promoting the tuc tuc!’ Commentary says those who pay MEK to incite unrest in Iraq, obviously have no clue who they are paying. The Iraqis hate MEK more than anyone else ever. For them even the return of Saddamists would be better. If Iraqis don’t want the US or Iran to interfere, they certainly don’t want MEK to interfere.

++ MEK’s NCRI brand issued an official statement against Massoud Khodabandeh and Iran International TV. Khodabandeh was interviewed during the news segment for his opinion about the fake French tweets. He responded, “This news is not new. From last year the MEK was being curtailed and being sent to Albania. The two events that Maryam Rajavi was recently allowed in Brussels and Paris remind me of 1996 when she was being deported back to Iraq and she begged for two meetings in London and Paris in exchange for going quietly, which she did. The reasons why MEK is being curtailed are: 1. The JCPOA nuclear issue that France doesn’t want to collapse. Curtailing MEK is a good gesture to Iran; 2. France wants to mediate between US and Iran and MEK hinders that – MEK are tools of neocons who don’t want Iran to get close to Europe; 3. Most importantly, France received evidence that the alleged bomb plot against MEK’s Villepinte event in 2018 was a false flag op done by themselves to set up others and blame Iran. That’s why they were banned from holding the event in 2019. In response to Khodabandeh’s interview MEK being MEK are issuing statements saying that this TV channel is Saudi paid therefore it should work as Saddam did and should be totally in our hands and on our side.

In English:

++ Nejat Society has again published appeals by the families of MEK members trapped in the slave camp in Albania for help to free their loved ones.

++ Eldar Mamedov writing in Lobelog picked up the news of a fake Twitter account in the name of Alexis Kohler, chief of staff of President Macron of France. The account tweeted that Maryam Rajavi and MEK would be expelled from France and sent to Albania. It took a week for the fake account to be taken down. Mamedov says this could be because the news itself might not be fake. He reviews MEK’s history in France and its use by various political interests in their foreign relations with Iran. He concludes that although MEK shows remarkable resilience in the face of constant setbacks, this latest move to expel the group from Europe will definitely contribute to its decline.

++ Following MEK spokesman Ali Safavi’s spurious allegation that four former MEK members living in Albania are ‘agents of the Iranian regime’ who pose a terrorist threat, the Albanian media has woken up to its responsibilities. Several television channels have run interviews with the four formers, who describe their current civilian lives as enjoying the freedoms they were denied for decades while with MEK. They also talked about MEK’s terrorist past and the operations they were ordered to undertake, from killing civilians inside Iran to the massacre of Kurds just after the first Gulf War. The interviews have had an unsettling effect on their Albanian audiences, in particular when these former MEK describe how the organization is currently deceptively recruiting Albanian youth and urging Albanians to “look out for your children”.

++ The Organization of Iranian American Communities had two Twitter accounts suspended due to the involvement of MEK.

++ The BBC’s Linda Pressley and Albana Kasapi do an excellent job of impartial broadcasting as they invited several voices to talk about the MEK in Albania. From government officials, to MEK officials to former MEK members, everyone had a say. But like the media everywhere, the BBC is still reporting on MEK in the same ‘Creationists versus Evolutionists’ way; based on a false premise. When the media wake up to the fact that MEK is a cult and its members are modern slaves, then true reporting will begin.
November 08, 2019

November 10, 2019 0 comments

Albania

Who are Albania’s Iranian guests?

In July, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani visited an Albanian village just outside Tirana. At a tightly-guarded encampment, he addressed the Iranian group who live there – the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), or People’s Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI). MEK has been a leading opposition voice against the Islamic Republic of Iran for decades.

Following the revolution of 1979, MEK fell out with the Iranian government – members were persecuted, and the organisation moved to Iraq for around three decades. Migration to Albania was facilitated by the United States, and more than 3,000 members have arrived.

But in Albania – a fragile democracy – there’s disquiet. Critics claim MEK’s presence compromises Albania’s security, and is fuelling a crack-down on the press. Meanwhile, dozens of Iranian MEK members have defected but find themselves living a precarious existence in Tirana because they are stateless, without passports.

Assignment investigates the improbable relationship between Albania and MEK.

Presenter: Linda Pressly
Producer: Albana Kasapi

November 9, 2019 0 comments

Albania

MEK Testimonies: How to brainwash young Albanians

“MEK is a mafia sect, you should look out for your children”

This Tuesday, the issue of the Mojahedin camp in Albania was discussed by the “Stop” show on TV Klan. Built a few years ago, this camp holds thousands of MEK members. Albania was the country that gave 26-hectares of land in Manza to the organization and they are building their own “city” there. But nobody who is not already in that camp is allowed to enter.

The on-going film crews face violence and abuse, despite outside the camp being public land. There is an extraordinary control system there. Each of these members when they came to the camp had thousands of dollars in cash with them.

Former MEK members have told Stop Camera that day by day the MEK harass and are trying to manipulate and train Albanian children to be part of their cultic organisation.

Farad Shakarami - MEK Cult defector in Albania

Farid Shakarami has been out of the camp for over a year and a half due to the dire conditions. But the MEK opposition, which previously opposed a savage regime, no longer allows him to meet his family.

Farid Shakarami: Good evening to all TV Klan viewers! My name is Farid Shakarami! I grew up in a family that was against the current Iranian regime. In 2009, my family and I joined the MEK organization at Camp Ashraf in Iraq. I was 16 and in a separate section of the camp with other young people, where the “brainwashing” system worked. I was inside the organization in Iraq for 8 years until we arrived in Albania in 2016. I left MEK, but my mum, sister and brother are inside the camp. Since my separation, I have wanted to see my family, but they do not allow me to see them and I am anxious about them every day as they are alone. I am not even allowed to talk to them on the phone. Here we are not in Iraq, we are in Europe, in a free and democratic country. I ask you to help me, to meet my mother. It’s true that I belong to another country, but I am a human being, and everyone needs to see their family without restriction. For over a year and a half, I can’t even hear their voices. This is my last hope and I ask you for help.

Rahman Mohammadian_ MEK Cult Defector in Albania

Rahman Mohammadian, meanwhile, points out the problems with MEK and the Albanian youth. He says that through the MEK members, young Albanians are being drawn into dangerous ways.

According to him, MEK is a mafia cult and chose Albania because since the country is not part of the EU, members cannot escape, and they can use them for their own purposes.

He described how Albanian children are sent to Qur’an lessons and the money they are given helps MEK. Mohammadian admitted that each member was given thousands of dollars in cash when they arrived. But he said the money is dirty and taken from Saddam Hussein.

According to him, MEK is a mafia cult and chose Albania because since the country is not part of the EU, members cannot escape, and they can use them for their own purposes.

Rahman Mohammadian: Good evening to all TV Klan viewers! My name is Rahman Mohammadian. I was with the MEK organisation for 28 years before I escaped them three years ago. One of the motives I had to join the Mojahedin was that their propaganda convinced me their ideals were for freedom and democracy. I wanted my country to have a more liberal future. But as soon as I joined, I realized that everything I had been told was the opposite. In 2015, I arrived in Albania with the MEK organization and after only 11 days escaped.

The choice of Albania by MEK was strategic, as MEK being a criminal organization, wanted a country that was not part of the European Union so that its members could not run away, and they could use them for their own purposes.

I want to explain to the Albanian people how MEK treats those who have left them. The organization does everything to prevent us from becoming 100% refugees – corrupting the Ramsa charity, the UN refugee office, and throwing us under the wheel.

I want to warn the Albanian people that MEK is a mafia cult, so you should be careful with your children! We know that your children are being used to participate in their events and demonstrations.

They are sent to Qur’an classes and the money they are given is, in fact, used to help draw your children in closer. The more time passes, the more impossible it will be to pull them out. They want to increase their power in Albania by exploiting young Albanians. This is just a mafia.

In Skanderbeg Square, some time ago, we saw with our own eyes, an Albanian family with the MEK flag in their hands, while other members filmed them in order to use the footage as propaganda to convince Albanians to take part. Don’t let this organization grow.

They have a lot of dirty money taken from Saddam Hussein, which was brought to Albania illegally. Suppose each of the 3,500 members who came to Albania was given $30,000 in cash to bring. The most trusted were given $200,000. I would also like to say that the Ramsa area dedicated to Iranian refugees has closed and we have been completely abandoned. We need help, at least to see our families here in Albania. We want to be granted work permits because we no longer have financial assistance from Ramsa. It is closed and we are completely abandoned. We need help, at least to see our families here in Albania.

In a Sky News video several years ago, Baroness Nicholson spoke of Saddam’s money and links to international terrorist organizations. One of the videos filmed by Iraqi intelligence services shows Iraqi officials giving money to MEK officials. It identifies some persons, who take large sums of money from several boxes.

“Saddam was trusting fewer and fewer people. He used MEK soldiers to transport and conceal things, including carefully transporting chemical and biological weapons. I have a lot of information from former MEK members that I have met in the region in Iraq, Iran and other places about where they have stored biological weapons”, said Baroness Nicholson.

Show host Saimir Kodra said that there are some apartments in Tirana where MEK members go to in our country and receive money which is sealed with Arabic seals. He asked the question whether this has been declared or not.

“Behind this, after all, is part of the Albanian state that has made an agreement with MEK. Of course, it has its own position, but the approach they have with the youth of the area to recruit and indoctrinate them with their ideology is not based at all on pluralism and democracy, as they claim, because the camp’s own approach is a harsh dictatorship. People who have gone out and about looking for work, the Albanian state does not recognize their right to work, no longer accepts them. It’s a huge horror. I would compare it to Mauthausen [Concentration Camp] in that whoever goes in there can’t get out anymore”, Kodra said.

/tvklan.al
TV Klan, Translated by Iran Interlink

November 9, 2019 0 comments

France

Is France Moving Against the MEK?

On October 30, a volley of tweets attributed to Alexis Kohler, chief of staff of the French President Emmanuel Macron, announced that France, taking into account the “negative consequences” of the presence of the National Council of Resistance (NCRI) on the French soil, will restrict its activities in the country. On November 5, however, the Élysée Palace disowned the tweets as fake, and the Twitter handle supposedly belonging to Kohler was suspended.
The incident raises a number of questions: Who was behind these tweets? What did they seek to achieve? Why did it take almost one week to take Kohler’s fake profile down? And what does it say about the French cyber-warfare capabilities? That aside, the news itself may not necessarily be groundless.
NCRI is an umbrella for the Mujahedeen-e Khalk, or MEK, also known as MKO, and People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI), an organization of Iranian dissidents in exile that seeks to overthrow the Islamic Republic. It was on the European Union list of terrorist organizations until 2009 and on the U.S. list until 2012. Its presence in France harks back to 1981. The French government granted asylum to MEK’s then-leader Massoud Rajavi, exiled from Iran after losing a bloody power struggle against Ayatollah Khomeini, his former ally and the leader of the Iranian revolution of 1979. Ever since, the MEK’s presence in France was a source of friction in relations between Paris and Tehran.
Every year the group organized rallies in the Paris suburb of Villepinte, attended by a wide array of well-known and reportedly well-paid speakers, mostly former and current officials from the United States, European and Arab states. These speakers included, among others, former U.S. national security adviser John Bolton (before he assumed that position) and former New York City mayor and personal lawyer to President Donald Trump Rudy Giuliani. Their role was to provide legitimacy to the MEK and its “president-elect” Maryam Rajavi as the alternative to the current Islamic regime in Iran.
In July 2018, just as the Iranian president Hassan Rouhani was to embark on a trip to Paris to work on saving the faltering nuclear agreement, known as Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action, or JCPOA, reports emerged about a bomb plot against the MEK gathering, allegedly hatched by the agents of Iranian intelligence. The case was never conclusively resolved. There remains some possibility that the “plot” was in reality a false flag operation concocted by the MEK and its foreign allies designed to sabotage diplomacy between the EU and Iran at a critical time. Reportedly, French intelligence has not entirely discarded the latter theory. Certainly, such a plot would only benefit those who seek to push the EU to join Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.
This helps explain why the French authorities did not allow the annual MEK gathering in summer of 2019, ostensibly for “security concerns.” It is likely that the real motivation behind the decision, however, was the desire of Paris to explore diplomatic opportunities in its relations with Tehran. In the race to save the nuclear agreement, French President Emmanuel Macron emerged as the most energetic of the Western leaders, engaging with both Iran and United States in pursuit of de-escalation and new negotiations. In this context, the last thing Paris needed was some incident involving MEK on French territory.
There is another reason why Paris would want to curtail MEK activities: its efforts to release two French academics currently in Iranian jails – Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal. French sources point to a precedent in 1986, when the French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac struck a deal with Tehran for the release of French hostages held prisoners by the Hezbollah in Lebanon. As a price, the MEK was forced to leave France and relocated to Iraq then. Similar dynamics may be at play now.
If asked to leave, the destination for remaining MEK cadres in France would be Albania, which already hosts around 3,000 members, following the U.S. and U.N.-brokered resettlement from their former base in Iraq. A complete eviction from France would be a serious setback for the MEK. Its continued relevance was fully premised on its ability to visibly project power and connections on both sides of the Atlantic and in the Persian Gulf. Annual public rallies were a medium to build up the lobby for the group. Being forced to trade Paris for Tirana, a capital of an impoverished Balkan nation, geographically far removed from both main Western capitals and Iran itself, is a patent downgrade. To this should be added the waning fortunes of the MEK’s champions in the U.S.: Bolton was fired, Giuliani is too busy dealing with his own legal troubles to continue lobbying for the MEK, and Trump himself is fighting for political survival amid the specter of an impending impeachment.
True, the MEK is still capable of performing such stints as recent gatherings in the French Senate and the European Parliament (EP) in Strasbourg. The EP in particular is an attractive platform for the MEK, since, unlike national parliaments, it represents MPs from 28 member states. Thus, a bigger diversity of views and sensitivities is present and more outlets for MEK efforts are available. But even there, its influence is on the wane. The MEK’s success to win recruits for its cause hinged on its ability to be all things to all people: for example, women rights defenders to the left, and promoters of better relations with Israel and Saudi Arabia to the right. However, the group committed a major strategic blunder by funding Vox, the Spanish extreme right party. This led some of the MEK’s supporters on the left to sever ties. Moreover, the MEK never managed to gain any foothold in official EP bodies dealing with Iran – its foreign affairs committee and its delegation for relations with Iran. In any case, small acts in parliaments reflect the group’s desperate attempts to remain relevant, and are no match for ambitious rallies the MEK was able to organize in previous years in France.
Throughout its history, the MEK showed remarkable resilience, and due to its chameleonic nature and deep pockets, managed to navigate the turbulent waters of Middle Eastern politics. It may be premature to write an obituary for the MEK just yet. But the French steps to curtail its activities, particularly if and when they’ll eventually lead to the group’s expulsion from France, are definitely contributing to its decline.
This article reflects the personal views of the author and not necessarily the opinions of the S&D Group and the European Parliament.
By Eldar Mamedov

Eldar Mamedov has degrees from the University of Latvia and the Diplomatic School in Madrid, Spain. He has worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia and as a diplomat in Latvian embassies in Washington D.C. and Madrid. Since 2007, Mamedov has served as a political adviser for the social-democrats in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) and is in charge of the EP delegations for inter-parliamentary relations with Iran, Iraq, the Arabian Peninsula, and Mashreq.

November 7, 2019 0 comments

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