Since the fall of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ the Cult of Rajavi) has turned into the strange bedfellow of the US and Israel. The MEK’s Camp Ashraf was placed under the protection of the US military after the collapse of Saddams’ regime although the group was considered by the then US president George W. Bush as one of the terrorist groups that Saddam Hussein sponsored, and eventually a pretext to invade Iraq.
The US forces to protect Camp Ashraf was commanded by Colonel Wesley Martin who is now an ardent advocate of the MEK.
“MEK made the transition from terrorist group to “champions of Iranian democracy” by virtue of intensive lobbying of Iran haters,” writes Philip Giraldi former CIA official. Nine years later, the group was removed from the US State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations. [1]
It was then relocated to Albania by the financial help of the US and the supervision of the UNHCR. All these supportive actions were being done while reports on the human rights abuses inside the MEK were frequently published by Western organizations and human rights bodies. However, the US did not care for what is the reality of the MEK. MEK was embraced because it was the enemy of the enemy of the US.
The group was also an operative arm for the US’s close ally Israel.
“What it comes down to is that people like Colonel Wes Martin, unfortunately proliferating in the U.S. government, hate Iran for a whole lot of reasons that have nothing to do with national security,” Giraldi suggests. “Israel and its lobby are certainly an element as is the need for enemies to feed the paranoia that drives and funds the military industrial complex. Martin reveals his ignorance when he objects to what he believes to be Iranian government efforts to “neutralize the MEK as the primarily (sic) threat to the Iranian regime.” That claim is complete nonsense. MEK worked with Saddam Hussein to kill Iranians, just as it earlier killed Americans. It is hated in Iran and has little support inside the country. It is a terrorist group, currently being used by the CIA and Israel’s Mossad to assassinate and otherwise kill still more Iranians. This is why luminaries like Mike Pompeo and John Bolton and Colonel Martin love it, not because it is poised to bring democracy to Iran.” [2]
The Israeli influence to preserve the MEK as the proxy force keeps on working after the relocation of the group in Europe. False flag operations to accuse Iranian governments of terrorist attacks in Europe, one day in Denmark and another day in Albania. The recent expulsion of the Iranian diplomats from Albania was reacted by the Iranian foreign Ministry and even the Albanian journalists and scholars.
“The whole history of the expulsion of the Iranian diplomats from Albania seems like a Trump – Netanyahu desperate affair which uses poor, corrupt and obedient Albania for their global confrontation with the European Union and other major world powers against Iran,” states Olsi Jazexhi the Canadian-Albanian historian. “The Americans and Israelis know that Edi Rama and his corrupt government will not dare to say no to the Americans. After the announcement, Rama was congratulated by the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump and others in the U.S. administration for the ‘brave act’ that Albania and he probably did not know was coming.” [3]
Jazexhi who is specialized in the history of Islam, nationalism and religious reformation in Southeastern Europe, accurately criticizes the Albanian President Edi Rama for being so reckless that he cannot resist the US-Israeli pressures on his government so as he has to receive “Marayam Rajavi as a member of his government”.
“PM Edi Rama, who should feel very nervous about the way that Israel, the U.S. and MEK have taken control over the foreign policy of his country, has not commented on the event yet,” he writes. “He understands that the old terrorist lady Maryam Rajavi and her jihadi soldiers whom Edi Rama welcomed generously in Albania in 2015, have now managed to take hostage the foreign policies of his country. Edi Rama whose government has voted against Israel and Trump in the United Nations on the question of Jerusalem, in order to appease the Europeans, knows that the Europeans are angry about what is going on with his country’s foreign policy. The expulsion of the Iranian diplomats will not sound good in Brussels. MEK, Israel and the U.S. are using Albania as a prostitute in their confrontation with Europe and Iran. However, Madam Maryam Rajavi, who claims to her jihadi radicals that she is the president-elect of Iran, should be smiling now. The Americans and Israelis have now set her to act as the Foreign Minister of Albania even though Edi Rama welcomed her in Albania in 2015 as a war refugee and not as a member of his government.” [4]
Moreover, Medea Benjamin the prominent peace activist adds Saudi Arabia to the MEK sponsors who share their animosity against Iran,
“And I think it’s because “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” kind of thing. We see now the Saudis working with Israel against Iran,” he told Ben Norton in the interview on the Real News Network. “And so many people in the Democratic Party are still beholden to the Israeli government and the lobby groups like AIPAC, and the Israeli government is determined to find a way to overthrow the Iranian regime.” [5]
Therefore, the entire credit that the MEK gets from the US, Israel and Saudi is not because of its democratic capacities but because of its undemocratic and violent background that proves it as a viable proxy force to serve the ambitions of the enemies of the Iranian nation.
By Mazda Parsi
References:
[1] Giraldi, Philip, Why the United States Has Not Won a Real War Since 1945, the American Herald Tribune, December 16th ,2018.
[2] ibid
[3] Jazexhi, Olsi, Has Donald Trump Appointed Madam Maryam Rajavi As Foreign Minister Of Albania?, Iranian.com, December 20th, 2018.
[4] ibid
[5]Norton, Ben, Dispelling Myths About Iran, Trump’s Bogeyman, the Real News Network, December 17th, 2018.