Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Zionist Lobbies Exploit the MKO

When in 1989, the Iranian American historian Ervand Abrahamian published his prominent book on the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO), The Iranian Mojahedin and asserted that the MKO’s rhetoric and its relations do not match its activities and ideology, the group’s hypocrisy had not extended to its today’s dimensions.  Today, the MKO is openly trying to take shelter under the umbrella of the US and Israel while the leader of the group, Masoud Rajavi criticized the rulers of the Islamic republic for their alleged rapprochement to the West! [1]

The Iranian American scholar, Dr. Sasan Fayazmanesh discussed the group’s history as “an autocratic, Marxist-oriented terrorist organization with little popular support in Iran and little credibility outside”. Dr. Fayazmanesh who is an economics professor at California State University wrote a book on the US-Iran relations, The United States and Iran: Sanctions, Wars and the Policy of Dual Containment. In a part of the book, he clarifies the MKO’s opportunistic tactics asserting, ”MEK had correctly realized that the Israeli lobby groups are the nerve-center of US foreign policy in the Middle East, and as such they concentrated their efforts on befriending these groups and their representatives in the US government.” He adds, “This was of course, quite ironic. Just a few months earlier, on June 20, 1992, the BBC Summary of World Broadcast reported that in his meeting with Saddam Hussein, MEK leader Rajavi had stated: “Iranian national movements and their masses strongly denounced the Iranian regime’s alliance with US imperialism, World Zionism and regional reactionaries to launch aggression against Iraq…” [2]

However, the objective of overthrowing the Islamic Republic made strange bed fellows out of the US, Israel and the MKO. The American government officials with close relationships with Zionist lobbies became vigorous supporters of the MKO. An example is introduced by Dr. Fayazmanesh: “There are, of course, a number of other individuals in the US Congress who are closely associated with Israeli Lobby groups and support MEK. One such person is Representative Ileana Ros- Lehtinen who considers the MKO terror cult as “democratic, pluralistic and secular”.  [3]

Dr. Fayazmanesh determines when a “cult centered around an individual” with a dark history of violence and cult-like practices, becomes a convenient tool in the hands of strange bedfellows like Saddam Hussein, The US and Israel. It means that the MKO is not taking benefits from using its “various patrons” to meet its aims but “the opposite is usually the case”. The US and Israel as well as Saddam Hussein have just a ”temporary use” for them. [4]

The Iranian American journalist Ali Gharib’s recent piece on Lobelog about Zionists-MKO relations also points out how terribly this relationship is based on benefits of Israel. “Perhaps some right-wing Israel lobby groups can be forgiven for taking up the cause of the exiled Iranian opposition group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK),” writes Ali Gharib. “The more ignorant among them might see a group headed by a woman, Maryam Rajavi, who claims to champion a secular, human rights-respecting democracy in Iran. They don’t know about Rajavi and the MEK’s history: its violence, its cult-like behavior, and its own history of human rights violations. What they do see—however problematic it might be for the rest of us—is a group monomaniacally focused on overthrowing their nemesis, the Islamic Republic, and that’s good enough.” [5]

Gharib points out the controversial deed of a Zionist lobby group named The Israeli Project. “But the Israel Project (TIP), which featured Maryam Rajavi in an online video earlier this month denouncing the Iranian elections, gets no pass on using the MEK as a bludgeon against Iran,” He asserts.” That’s because the Israel Project knows damn well what Rajavi and the MEK are. Consider what TIP head Josh Block had to say about the group in 2011, when he was at the inaptly named Progressive Policy Institute: “The MEK is a terrorist organization. Right? Let’s not kid ourselves.” Yes, let’s not.” [6]

By: Mazda Parsi

Sources:

[1] Abrahamian, Ervand, The Iranian Mojahedin, Yale University Press, 1992

[2]Fayazmanesh, Sasan, The United States and Iran: Sanctions, Wars and the Policy of Dual Containment Routledge, Reprint edition , May 16, 2008, Pages 79 to 85

[3] ibid

[4] ibid

[5] Gharib, Ali, The Israel Project Boosts An Iranian “Terrorist Organization”, The Lobelog, March 18, 2016

[6] ibid

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Former members of the MEK

Pictorial – Recently defected member among MKO hostages families in Iraq

Mr. Ashur Varshi, 46, is the most recent defector of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO). He escaped Camp Liberty a few weeks ago. He is residing in a hotel in Baghdad now, in company with other survivors of the MKO. He is in contact with his family.

Varshi joined the MKO 27 years ago. As a 19–year–old teenager his ideal was the overthrow of the Islamic Republic through armed struggle. But ultimately, the totalitarian and manipulative system of the group made him leave it. ”After 27 years of companionship with the group, I was threatened to death (by Alireza Budaqchi under the pseudonym of Ahad) just because I had said that the leader’s arguments were not realistic,” Varshi writes. “He [Ahad] used to pressure me to praise the leader’s words.”

Ashur who was labeled an anti-leader agent, was eventually supervised all the time. ”There was an absolutely suppressive atmosphere,” he recounts.” I was repeatedly summoned by them; and I was faced with mental torture in order to stop criticizing the group.”

As a dissident member of the Cult of Rajavi, Ashur was brave enough to question the leaders for their dishonesty but the answer was more punishment. ”with each punishment, I got more assured that the MKO was not the same group I once had joined for struggle, so I admitted any danger and pressure.’’

He paid a heavy price for the disagreement he voiced against the group leaders. ”I preferred to be bombed, to be attacked by missiles everyday instead of talking with a bunch of brainwashed torturers,” he states.

Recently defected member among MKO hostages families in Iraq

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Former members of the MEK

Pictorial – Mr. Varshi managed to run away the Cult after 27 years

Ashur Varshi joined the MKO 27 years ago. As a 19–year–old teenager his ideal was the overthrow of the Islamic Republic through armed struggle. But ultimately, the totalitarian and manipulative system of the group made him leave it. ”After 27 years of companionship with the group, I was threatened to death (by Alireza Budaqchi under the pseudonym of Ahad) just because I had said that the leader’s arguments were not realistic,” Varshi writes. “He [Ahad] used to pressure me to praise the leader’s words.”

Mr. Varshi defected MKO Cult

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Former members of the MEK

Pictorial – MKO former members forced to again become terrorists for money

Former MEK member Ehsan Bidi staged a sit-in outside the UNHCR office in Tirana, Albania where he has refugee status.Bidi and other formers were told by the UN office that their funds and accommodation would be stopped from end of March. They have now all been evicted and made homeless.According to Bidi, the responsible person at the UN, Nicola, has been replaced in the past few days by someone from Pakistan who claims to know nothing except that the UN is not allowed to pay for the refugees from today. The UN attributes this situation to an agreement between the Albanian government, the US, MEK and the UNHCR. According to this agreement, Albania should only provide land and the individual refugees’ expenses are to be met by the MEK. The problem is that not only will the MEK not provide for these formers’ expenses, they actually want to kill Bidi.Bidi says that already a few members have been forced to humiliate themselves and beg the MEK to be allowed again to become terrorists for money. They all have refugee status.

MKO former members forced to again become terrorists for money

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Albania

Go back to the MEK, or go to the Iranian embassy

Former MEK member Ehsan Bidi staged a sit-in outside the UNHCR office in Tirana, Albania where he has refugee status.

The MEK openly threaten to kill him because he left them.

Bidi and other formers were told by the UN office that their funds and accommodation would be stopped from end of March. They have now all been evicted and made homeless.

While Bidi protested, he was approached by a television journalist but when the police took Bidi away they also forcefully confiscated the contact card he had been given.

According to Bidi, the responsible person at the UN, Nicola, has been replaced in the past few days by someone from Pakistan who claims to know nothing except that the UN is not allowed to pay for the refugees from today. The UN attributes this situation to an agreement between the Albanian government, the US, MEK and the UNHCR. According to this agreement, Albania should only provide land and the individual refugees’ expenses are to be met by the MEK. The problem is that not only will the MEK not provide for these formers’ expenses, they actually want to kill Bidi.

Bidi says that already a few members have been forced to humiliate themselves and beg the MEK to be allowed again to become terrorists for money. They all have refugee status. When Bidi questioned Nicola and other authorities they said ‘there are two ways; either go back to the MEK, or go to the Iranian embassy and ask to be taken back to Iran (this is while they have political asylum in Albania). When Bidi insisted on having this in writing, UN officials called on plain clothes ‘police’, who beat him up and removed him from the area.

Bidi has not given up his protest and regularly posts updates on Facebook. He can’t go back to the MEK and he can’t return to Iran. Obviously something is wrong with this situation and the only logical explanation is the corruption in Albania. Bidi has stated that if he is found dead, it will be “because of a coalition of the MEK and Albania and its mafia – whether this is in the UN or elsewhere”.

Iran Interlink weekly digest

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Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 139

++ Former MEK member Ehsan Bidi staged a sit-in outside the UNHCR office in Tirana, Albania where he has refugee status. The MEK openly threaten to kill him because he left them. Bidi and other formers were told by the UN office that their funds and accommodation would be stopped from end of March. They have now all been evicted and made homeless. While Bidi protested he was approached by a television journalist but when the police took Bidi away they also forcefully confiscated the contact card he had been given. According to Bidi, the responsible person at the UN, Nicola, has been replaced in the past few days by someone from Pakistan who claims to know nothing except that the UN is not allowed to pay for the refugees from today. The UN attributes this situation to an agreement between the Albanian government, the US, MEK and the UNHCR. According to this agreement, Albania should only provide land and the individual refugees’ expenses are to be met by the MEK. The problem is that not only will the MEK not provide for these formers’ expenses, they actually want to kill Bidi. Bidi says that already a few members have been forced to humiliate themselves and beg the MEK to be allowed again to become terrorists for money. They all have refugee status. When Bidi questioned Nicola and other authorities they said ‘there are two ways; either go back to the MEK, or go to the Iranian embassy and ask to be taken back to Iran (this is while they have political asylum in Albania). When Bidi insisted on having this in writing, UN officials called on plain clothes ‘police’, who beat him up and removed him from the area. Bidi has not given up his protest and regularly posts updates on Facebook. He can’t go back to the MEK and he can’t return to Iran. Obviously something is wrong with this situation and the only logical explanation is the corruption in Albania. Bidi has stated that if he is found dead, it will be “because of a coalition of the MEK and Albania and its mafia – whether this is in the UN or elsewhere”.

 

++ Maryam Rajavi is again ardently supporting Daesh and Syrian armed groups – who are fighting against each other. She criticises the West for not openly helping them. MEK critics write ‘we know they are with Daesh and other terrorists, but clearly the MEK has become deflated because they are on the losing side again’. Some refer to Maryam Rajavi’s Norouz speech which sounded tired and defeatist; although she still tries to pretend the MEK is an opposition to Iran yet she actually has nothing constructive to say.

 

++ After the terrorist attacks in Brussels last week, some commentators remarked ‘you host the MEK in Europe, of course you are not serious about fighting terrorism’. Some pointed out that the MEK invented terrorist suicide bombings, which they performed before and after the Iranian revolution. This is not something found in Iranian religious culture but only belongs to the MEK. Now it has become common in these new pseudo-religious Islamist terrorist groups.

 

++ A month away from International Workers Day on May 1, the MEK are already publishing propaganda in name of Abbas Davari. He was assigned Chief of the NCRI Workers’ Commission specifically because he originally joined the MEK as an illiterate worker (who is now approaching 80 years old). The MEK’s ‘support the workers’ pose has become ridiculed because of Abbas Davari’s notoriety as the contact between Saddam’s secret services and the MEK from before they went to Iraq. Videos showing him arguing with Saddam’s men over money and handing over intelligence against Iran for all these years are all in the public domain. Some commentators joke that Davari should be advocating for Saddam’s ex-henchmen who don’t get paid instead of talking about workers in Iran. He named on the wanted list for murder, kidnapping and torture by Iraq’s Judiciary. Iraqi police can’t arrest him while he is in Camp Liberty so he is kept there. One article compares this current propaganda campaign with previous MEK events such as the recent International Womens’ Day and suggests that the MEK now try to sneak events in prior to their real date so that they won’t be confronted by people’s reactions and ridicule.

 

In English

 

++ An article by Nejat Bloggers exposes the MEK as Godfathers of suicide bombing and says this behaviour is achieved through cult indoctrination. The events in Belgium are no different from the work the MEK has been carrying out for decades. “In case of the MKO, in better words “the Cult of Rajavi”, the leader Massoud Rajavi manipulated his rank and file with a very complicated methodology of indoctrination. Massoud’s followers were indoctrinated that killing the innocent is inevitable consequence of fighting for the cult’s cause. Members of the cult of Rajavi were manipulated that these missions were the only way to fight for their leader. They were then glorified as martyrs.

“Although the realization that MKO terrorists view themselves as soldiers engaged in a just war does not legitimize their cause or methods, it does provide some insight into their motivation. The MKO’s history is overwhelmed with suicide bombings, self-immolations and swallowing cyanide capsules just because these acts were wisely indoctrinated in the minds of members.”

 

++ Former MEK member Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton) wrote a letter for The Guardian in response to the National Union of Teachers’ rejection of the Home Office’s Prevent Strategy. “As an ordinary Leeds lass who spent two decades embroiled in a foreign terrorist organisation in the 1980s and 90s, I was deeply disappointed by the NUT’s vote to reject the Home Office’s Prevent strategy (Report, theguardian.com, 28 March). Last week, in a presentation to the Suffolk Prevent conference, I was able to explain in detail the mechanisms behind how radicalisation takes place. That the psychological manipulation involved in radicalisation is similar to that which underlies domestic violence and child sexual exploitation. That the different belief systems espoused by various violent extremist groups are almost irrelevant because their radicalising behaviour is the same.

“The audience response was overwhelmingly positive. They understood Prevent not as a political or ideological assault on their communities, but first and foremost as a safeguarding issue. They unequivocally understood that schools and colleges need to make space for challenging conversations and that through listening to explanations like the one I give as a former terrorist, everyone in the public sector can gain the confidence needed to effectively fulfil their obligations under Prevent. I can only assume that NUT members’ reaction is due to the undeniably patchy and poor Prevent training which is being delivered by people who don’t have a clear grasp of the issue. But as somebody who might have been rescued if the Prevent and Channel programmes had existed when I was radicalised, I can only say that it would be a disaster if the fallout from weak and incoherent training is allowed to blight the future of the Prevent duty.”

April 1, 2016

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Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Pros and cons of the Prevent strategy (Counter-terrorism Policy)

As an ordinary Leeds lass who spent two decades embroiled in a foreign terrorist organisation in the 1980s and 90s, I was deeply disappointed by the NUT’s vote to reject the Home Office’s Prevent strategy (Report, theguardian.com, 28 March). Last week, in a presentation to the Suffolk Prevent conference, I was able to explain in detail the mechanisms behind how radicalisation takes place. That the psychological manipulation involved in radicalisation is similar to that which underlies domestic violence and child sexual exploitation. That the different belief systems espoused by various violent extremist groups are almost irrelevant because their radicalising behaviour is the same.

The audience response was overwhelmingly positive. They understood Prevent not as a political or ideological assault on their communities, but first and foremost as a safeguarding issue. They unequivocally understood that schools and colleges need to make space for challenging conversations and that through listening to explanations like the one I give as a former terrorist, everyone in the public sector can gain the confidence needed to effectively fulfil their obligations under Prevent. I can only assume that NUT members’ reaction is due to the undeniably patchy and poor Prevent training which is being delivered by people who don’t have a clear grasp of the issue. But as somebody who might have been rescued if the Prevent and Channel programmes had existed when I was radicalised, I can only say that it would be a disaster if the fallout from weak and incoherent training is allowed to blight the future of the Prevent duty.

Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton)

Leeds

–

Congratulations to the NUT for coming out against the government’s ludicrous Prevent strategy. Prevent is a paranoid and counterproductive initiative which has traumatised innocent children in the name of “fighting terror”. In January police questioned a 10-year-old boy for writing a essay in which he mistakenly wrote he lived in a “terrorist house” instead of a “terraced house”. In March a four-year-old boy who mispronounced the word “cucumber” as “cooker-bomb” was threatened with counter-terrorism measures.

Last September a 14-year-old pupil at Islington’s Central Foundation used the term “ecoterrorism” in debate during a French lesson. A few days later he was interviewed by two adults, without his parents’ knowledge, who asked him if he was “affiliated with Isis”. The experience left the boy “scared and nervous”. The fact that he – an Asian Muslim – was singled out from the class as a potential terrorist was not lost on his white, non-Muslim colleagues who had also spoken of “ecoterrorism”. Prevent is racist nonsense which is stopping young people doing what they should be doing in school – learning about and discussing the world.

Sasha Simic

London

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Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 138

++ Families have written to the UNHCR saying that “on the occasion of the Iranian New Year, could you not, after two decades, do something to facilitate a meeting with our loved ones, even if it is from a distance”. They ask, “Is this not our right?” Another family member pleads “after all these years can you not convince them to give me a photograph of him. The last one I have is thirty years old.”
++ Sot al Iraq published an article by a paid MEK lobbyist called Saafi Yasseri. To give right of reply the paper published the letter of Mrs Iranpour – whose two brothers are in Camp Liberty – in answer to this man. Iranpour complains that “even as a paid lobbyist you should have some dignity and not call the sister of the members of MEK an ‘agent’ while everyone can see that I have been a teacher for over two decades. What I ask couldn’t be more legitimate; to see my brothers and to check their wellbeing. What agent? You, as a paid agent, convince your benefactors to allow me to see them then there’ll be no other demands.”
++ In an item titled ‘The Message of President Maryam Rajavi to the British Parliament’ the MEK wrote that on March 23 a few known MEK lobbyists gathered in a private room in parliament to listen while a message by Maryam Rajavi was read out loud to them. A respected parent from Tabriz wrote a note on this announcement and what Rajavi has been saying. He titles his piece ‘They should tax people for talking rubbish’. He briefly examines the contradictory and illogical things which Rajavi says. He then points out to Rajavi, “They have repeatedly denied you even the visa that ordinary people get to go on holiday in the UK. Anyway, how can you call yourself a president when for two decades nobody has even voted for you. Then when a few lobbyists are paid to listen to you how can you claim this is ‘addressing parliament’. You are losing the plot. But this is not the problem, the real problem is that my family are stuck in Camp Liberty and you won’t let them go.”
In English:
++ Ali Gharib in Lobelog tears a strip off The Israel Project for trying to bolster its anti-Iran message by using the MEK. The tightly written article concludes: “This much is certain: as long as Block and his Israel Project are willing to leverage and boost Maryam Rajavi and the Mojahedin-e Khalq – a group that, again, Block thinks is a ‘terrorist organization’ – they ought not to be taken very seriously on either Iranian politics or American Iran policy.”
++ An article in Panorama Online exposes the correspondence sent by the former Albanian Ambassador of Albania to the former Prime Minister Sali Berisha. Ambassador Sedje Qerimaj tells the PM that Albania should not take the MEK as refugees because they are dangerous and no other country is prepared to host them. He advises that even a small financial contribution would be sufficient. Berisha, however, suddenly agreed to take the MEK terrorists after consultation with the USA in spite of this warning.
++ Iran Interlink joins the dots between events marking Noruz, Halabja in Westminster by reminding us of the MEK’s Operation Pearl in which thousands of Kurdish civilians were killed on behalf of Saddam Hussein – when Maryam Rajavi issued her infamous order ‘Crush the Kurds under your tanks and save your bullets for the Revolutionary Guards’. This would explain why Maryam Rajavi remains, according to Middle East minister Tobias Ellwood, persona non grata in the UK. MEK lobbyists need to do more fact-checking if they are to retain any credibility.

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The cult of Rajavi

MKO, God Father of Suicide bombers!

Recent suicide attacks in Belgium capital, a park in Pakistan and a stadium in Iraq have resulted in dramatic loss of lives. All attacks were operated by the extremist terrorist suicide bombers who left their own life behind to take the lives of a large number of innocent people.
What makes a person to commit a suicide bombing?
To understand the motives behind suicide bombing many people try to excuse or approve it. It seems easier to assume that suicide bombers are just malicious characters who hate their victims but terrorism is not a simple phenomenon with easy explanations. Actually a wide variety of motives and factors are involved. For analyzing these motives and factors the Mujahedin khalq Organization (the MKO) is a significant example of such terror acts. The group may be one of the first role models of suicide bombers for extremists through the history.
One may also think that suicide bombers are crazy or psychopathic or that they lack moral feelings but most terrorists are not psychologically deviant and do not operate outside the normal rules of behavior, but are instead ordinary people from ordinary backgrounds. A glance at personalities of current and former members of the MKO indicates that the majority of them are from average Iranian families with religious or/ and honorable backgrounds.  Most of them are smart, university educated individuals with intellectual tendencies.
Nonetheless, the crucial point about them is that they believe that their violent actions, while somewhat regrettable, are justified and noble. Moreover, their emotional commitment to their cause and their comrades and particularly their leader is revealing of normal human psychology. Often their actions do not ultimately stem from hatred, but rather from love of their leader and from absolute obedience to the orders of the leader. But, how leader can convince such people to commit the most atrocious acts?
In case of the MKO, in better words “the Cult of Rajavi”, the leader Massoud Rajavi manipulated his rank and file with a very complicated methodology of indoctrination. Massoud’s followers were indoctrinated that killing the innocent is inevitable consequence of fighting for the cult’s cause. Members of the cult of Rajavi were manipulated that these missions were the only way to fight for their leader. They were then glorified as martyrs.
Although the realization that MKO terrorists view themselves as soldiers engaged in a just war does not legitimize their cause or methods, it does provide some insight into their motivation. The MKO’s history is overwhelmed with suicide bombings, self-immolations and swallowing cyanide capsules just because these acts were wisely indoctrinated in the minds of members.
After the 1979 revolution in Iran, when the MKO began to fight the newly established Islamic Republic government, the MKO suicide bombers assassinated dozens of the Iranian officials and civilians. The suicide bombers were glorified in the group’s journal as suicide martyrs.
More than two decades later, suicide was repeated in the MKO history in a much more horrifying form:  self-immolation. Following the arrest of the group’s co-leader Maryam Rajavi by the French Police, a dozen of the cult followers set themselves on fire in European cities to protest the arrest of the co-leader. These horrific acts in the heart of Europe revealed one important issue: The MKO is a destructive cult of personality. Self-immolators showed that they do not follow their leaders but they worship them. This was the very consequence of Massoud Rajavi’s methodology in his modern slavery.
Today, the IS and other extremist groups should be watched and destroyed but groups like the MKO seems to be more threatening because they freely have bases in Europe with hundreds of brainwashed slaves who are ready to scarify themselves for their leaders despite the group’s propaganda for human rights and democracy.
Mazda Parsi

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Mujahedin Khalq 's Terrorism

Albania’s UN Ambassador to PM Berisha: Don’t take Mojahedin Khalq

In correspondence sent to former Prime Minister Sali Berisha in 2012, Albania’s former Ambassador to the United Nations, Sedje Qerimaj, suggests that Albania would do better to provide financial assistance than accommodate members of the Iranian Mojahedin Khalq terrorist group.
blankIn a copy of this correspondence provided to Panorama, the UN Ambassador informs former Prime Minister Berisha about two meetings held in Geneva as part of the effort to find a solution for the residents of Camp Ashraf in Iraq. According to this correspondence, on March 15, 2012, Ambassador Qerimaj held a meeting with Volker Türk, director of the Department of International Protection at the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in which Albania was asked to take a group of refugees, to accept their placement in a temporary base, and to give financial assistance to the UNHCR project.
In another meeting organized on March 23, 2012 by the UNHCR and attended by representatives of 30 countries of the world, Albania’s ambassador to the UN, stressed in his speech that the country was considering all options for making a contribution to finding a final solution to this problem.
At the conclusion of the correspondence, Ambassador Former Prime Minister Berisha Qerimaj suggests that the grant of even a modest financial contribution would suffice as Albania’s contribution to efforts to find a final solution to this problem. Despite this, former Prime Minister Berisha, after consultations with the USA agreed to give refuge in our country to the Iranian Mojahedin Khalq terrorist group.
FULL LETTER OF ALBANIA’S UN AMBASSADOR TO PM BERISHA
Nr.Prot.143 Geneva on March 26, 2012
Re: On the issue of Iranian dissidents, residents of Camp Ashraf
To: SH.T.Z. Sali Berisha Prime Minister of Albania
Dear Mr. Prime Minister,
Let me inform you of the outcome of the two meetings held in Geneva, as part of the effort to find a solution for the residents of Camp Ashraf in Iraq*.
(* Clarification: In June 2008, the Iraqi government decided to close Camp Ashraf, where about 3200 Iranian dissidents had lived since the 1980s. In 2011 the Iraqi government decided to extend the closure of the camp until April 30, 2012. In September 2011, after UNHCR intervention, there followed around 3246 applications for refugee status from residents in Camp Ashraf. The camp is in the process of relocating to the Airport area of Baghdad, to a former US military base, as the last stage of finding a final solution outside Iraq.)
First, on March 15, 2012, our ambassador at the UN Office in Geneva met Mr. Volker Türk, director of the Department of International Protection at the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), at his request. Director Türk expressed his gratitude for Albania’s continued assistance to the UNCHR (he cited the case of receipt of those released from Gitmo) and urged considering the possibility that the Albanian 1. accept a refugee group,
2. accept the establishment of an interim distribution base,
3. grant financial assistance for the UNHCR project,
Ambassador Qerimaj assured Mr. Türk that he will convey to the Albanian authorities the UNCHR’s requirements and that the government of our country would examine all possibilities to take part in finding a final solution to this problem.
Second, on March 23, 2012, our Ambassador at the UN, Mr. Sedje Qerimaj attended the meeting held by the UNHCR to find strategies for solving the problem of Camp Ashraf in Iraq. This meeting, which was attended by Ms. Erika Feller, Assistant High Commissioner – Protection, Mr. Martin Kobler, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Iraq, as well as ambassadorial representatives of 30 countries invited by the High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. Antonio Gutierrez, was held to discuss finding a solution for the residents of Camp Ashraf.
Our Ambassador, Mr. Qerimaj, took the floor at the meeting and said that the Albanian government will consider all opportunities to contribute to finding a final solution to this problem. Only two out of 30 country representatives and humanitarian organizations participating in the meeting promised concrete support: the representative of the United States, Mr. Dan Fried pledged the assistance of 7m USD, while Italy promised aid of 300,000 Euros for the project.
In the end, Mrs. Erika Feller, Assistant High Commissioner – Protection and Mr. Martin Kobler, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Iraq, thanked the representatives of the United States, Italy and Albania for expressing their willingness to help find a solution for the project to relocate the residents of Camp Ashraf.
In our opinion, very few countries have expressed any desire to receive refugees from this group. This is due to their previous activity, which had led to the inclusion of this group on various lists of terrorist groups.
The granting of financial assistance, even modestly, would suffice as Albania’s contribution in its efforts to find a final solution to this problem.
Thanks for your cooperation,
Ambassador Sedje Qerimaj
Panorama
Translated by Iran Interlink

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