The MEK as crisis mongers

If Trump Meets Iranian Mujahidin Group, it Could ‘Hurt US Interests’

Washington’s interests will be damaged if incoming US President Donald Trump decides to negotiate with The People’s Mujahidin Organization of Iran (MEK), Sina Azodi, the US-based expert on Iran’s foreign policy and US- Iranian relations, told Sputnik.

AP Photo/ Brennan Linsley

In an interview with Sputnik, Sina Azodi, the US-based expert on Iran’s foreign policy and US-Iranian relations, warned that if US President-elect Donald Trump decides to sit down with The People’s Mujahidin Organization of Iran (MEK), it will ride roughshod over Washington’s interests.

The interview came after a number of former US officials urged President-elect Donald Trump to start a dialogue with an exiled Iranian group – the National Council of Resistance.

The organization presents itself as an alternative to Iran’s theocracy and seeks to change the regime in the Islamic Republic. One of the Council’s components is a group known as MEK which was designated a terrorist organization by the US between 1997 and 2012.

"The Trump Administration should not talk to MEK because in the long run it can hurt the United States’ interests," Sina Azodi said.

According to him, Trump’s possible talks with MEK could be used by Iran’s domestic hardline politicians as leverage in dealing with the country’s moderate government.

Asked about how Iranian authorities feel about the Trump Administration’s potential parleys with MEK, Azodi said that "they [the Iranian government] might be bothered but I don’t think they are concerned."

He remained cautiously optimistic about the development of relations between Washington and Tehran under Trump, and the situation around the Iranian nuclear deal.

"I don’t think that anything major would happen," Azodi said, adding that Iran typically develops better relations with Washington when a Republican administration is in power in the United States.

During the 1970s, MEK led a guerilla campaign against the US-backed Shah of Iran, and launched attacks on American targets. However, in a recent letter to Trump, former US officials claimed that the designation of MEK as a terrorist group was done at the request of Tehran.

The signatories of the letter also urged Trump to close the loopholes standing in the way of the Iranian nuclear deal and to refocus on US policy towards Tehran and on its human rights violations. Trump’s transition officials did not immediately respond to a request to comment about this.

Meanwhile, analysts say that any talks with MEK would not be a radical departure from current US policy. However, they stress that any indication that the US backs the group’s goal of regime change would increase hostility between Tehran and Washington.

Sputniknews.com

January 21, 2017 0 comments

Iran

Iran arrests MKO ringleader in Isfahan

Iran’s security forces have arrested a ringleader of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), who was seeking to create chaos during the funeral procession of a senior Iranian official in the capital Tehran.

Iranian media reported on Wednesday that the MKO member had been arrested the day before in the central city of Isfahan. The terrorist had been identified by Iranian security forces before entering the country, according to the reports.

The individual had come to Iran with the aim of creating chaos during the funeral of Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who passed away on Sunday and was laid to rest on Tuesday.

Huge crowds of Iranian mourners from all walks of life turned out in Tehran for the funeral of the late chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council and two-time president. The funeral was also attended by senior political, military and religious figures.

Mourners take part in the funeral of former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in Tehran, Iran, on January 10, 2017

The terrorist had reportedly recorded numerous videos for MKO-affiliated satellite channels.

The MKO, the most hated terrorist group among the Iranians, has carried out numerous terrorist attacks against Iranian civilians and government officials over the past three decades.

Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist assaults since the victory of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, about 12,000 have fallen victim to MKO’s acts of terror.

The terrorist group also sided with the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, during Iraq’s eight-year imposed war against Iran in the 1980s. The group also helped Saddam in his brutal crackdown on his opponents.

January 14, 2017 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Absurd Propaganda of the MKO and its Supporters on Syria

The endless propaganda of the Mujahedin Khalq (the MKO/ MEK/the Cult of Rajavi) seems to be running out of new ideas for its disinformation champagne against the Iranian government. The new so-called revelations published by the MKO and then echoed by the Washington Times on what they call “Iranian crimes and atrocities” in Syria, clearly indicates that the group is making too much effort to show itself off as a reliable source of intelligence on Iran. However, its recent propaganda was almost completely ignored by the mainstream media –except its two main paid western tribunes, the Washington Times and Fox News. [1]

Today, even the Western propaganda about Aleppo is denounced. Peter Ford was the UK’s Ambassador to Syria from 2003 to 2006.In an interview with Radio BBC he challenges the West-run misinformation about conflicts in Syria. He criticizes the West for its wrong policy — to “have clung for too long to the illusion that the so-called ‘moderate opposition’ would overcome Assad”. [2]

“Surely now, with the Government’s recovery of Aleppo, the veils should fall from our eyes and we should look reality in the face: Assad is not going to be removed by force of arms or at the negotiating table,” Peter Ford tells BBC. This is what frightens the MKO. While this British politician suggests that the West should stop supporting a failed and divided opposition and moreover the newly elected president of the Unites States Donald Trump is seeking a normalized relation with Russia and fighting against ISIS in Syria, the MKO agenda to demonize Tehran’s role in Syria is an already failed tactic. [3]

The MKO’s hasty propaganda shows its severe concerns about a normalized Iran-West relation. Massoud Khodabandeh, former MKO member and Director at Middle East Strategy Consultants write in the Huffington Post, “The MEK pretends it has some kind of insider knowledge which it can apparently tap into whenever it needs to make a point. Iran, however, has made no secret of its involvement in the Syrian conflict. Newspapers and state-run media probably tell us in much greater detail than the Washington Times report about the deployment of fighters and how they are funded. The dead from this conflict are mourned very publicly inside Iran. It is disingenuous of the MEK to merely recycle this information as a ‘revelation’.” [4]

Khodabandeh accurately labels the US journalists and officials who are deceived by the MKO propaganda as “gullible” but it should be noted that sometimes the biased media just seek to falsify facts in line with the agenda of certain politicians. “We’ve seen not what some allege to be a meltdown of humanity but a meltdown of sanity,” says Ford about the allegations of the West. “Where are, where’s any evidence of the alleged atrocities, of the Guernica, of the massacres, the genocide, the holocaust?” [5]

And about the fabrications made by the Cult of Rajavi on the Iranian government, Khodabandeh asserts, “the MEK is notorious for its role as a misinformation and propaganda outlet.” He denounces the MKO writing, “Variously over the years, the MEK has been exposed for false reporting and intelligence in issues such as the P5+1 nuclear negotiations with Iran. After passing one piece of genuine intelligence in 2002 which it was given by Mossad, the MEK continued to pass fake information to the IAEA so as to disrupt the negotiation process, and to enable the US to impose severe sanctions against Iran.” [6]

Although, the MKO tries “to muddy the waters of truth” and the West “flies in the face of reality” on the issue of Syria, the truth is concretely clear and verifiable.

By Mazda Parsi

Sources:

[1] Scarborough, Rowan, Iran brutalizing Aleppo, executing ‘most atrocious war crimes’ of 21st century, The Washington Times, December 20, 2016

[2] Former UK Ambassador to Syria Debunks Aleppo Propaganda, BBC Interview transcribed by Information Clearing House, December 26, 2016

[3] ibid

[4] Khodabandeh, Massoud, MEK’s Fake Intelligence On Aleppo Only Hinders Fact-finding Bodies Finding The Truth, The Huffington Post, 24 Dec, 2016

[5] ibid

[6] ibid

January 1, 2017 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

MEK’s Fake Intelligence On Aleppo Only Hinders Fact-finding Bodies Finding The Truth

An article published in the Washington Times Security section claims that (yet again) the Mojahedin Khalq (aka MKO, MEK, NCRI, Rajavi cult, Saddam’s Private Army) has provided intelligence to the West on Iranian crimes and atrocities. However, in terms of actual intelligence revelations, the article should more properly have sat in the Opinion section.

In this post-truth era, it almost goes without saying that facts and fiction rub shoulders in most of the articles reporting on Syria and Aleppo from all sides. But if Western journalists had no presence in Aleppo and uncritically reported hearsay and opinion to support their own agendas, think then what the MEK’s reporting is based on.

The MEK pretends it has some kind of insider knowledge which it can apparently tap into whenever it needs to make a point. Iran, however, has made no secret of its involvement in the Syrian conflict. Newspapers and state run media probably tell us in much greater detail than the Washington Times report about the deployment of fighters and how they are funded. The dead from this conflict are mourned very publicly inside Iran. It is disingenuous of the MEK to merely recycle this information as a ‘revelation’

NCRI spokesman deceives gullible U.S. officials and journalists with misinformation

But the MEK is notorious for its role as a misinformation and propaganda outlet. Variously over the years, the MEK has been exposed for false reporting and intelligence in issues such as the P5+1 nuclear negotiations with Iran. After passing one piece of genuine intelligence in 2002 which it was given by Mossad, the MEK continued to pass fake information to the IAEA so as to disrupt the negotiation process, and to enable the US to impose severe sanctions against Iran. In 2015 the MEK ‘shock revelation’ of a secret nuclear facility in Iran – intended to derail ongoing nuclear negotiations – when subjected to just a little bit of investigatory journalism was soon revealed as sheer fabrication. The MEK similarly muddied the waters of truth during investigations into the bombing of a Jewish centre in Argentina in 1994 for which MEK supplied intelligence implicated Iran.

NCRI ‘shock revelation’ turned out to be taken from an advertising brochure

Iran and Russia’s behaviour and agendas have their own place in these issues which should be rigorously investigated and reported. But that can only happen if journalists and investigatory bodies (human rights, nuclear experts, war crimes, etc) are able to base their work on facts and not the fake and fictionalised fantasies of stooges like the MEK, which are clearly designed to misinform on these issues.

The information laundry cycle is not difficult to follow – the Washington Times takes its report from the NCRI site of Maryam Rajavi. The NCRI site then reposts its own report as though it originated in the Washington Times and both, without further verification, get taken up by Fox News.

By Massoud Khodabandeh Director at Middle East Strategy Consultants.

December 24, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

6 Years ago Today: CIA, Mossad and MEK Assassinated Iran’s Top Nuclear Scientist Majid Shahriari

This November 28th is the sixth anniversary of the assassination of leading Iranian nuclear scientist Majid Shahriari, whose death represented a particularly disgraceful episode in the attempts made by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service to interfere with and damage Iran’s peaceful nuclear research program. Shahriari, who reportedly had no connection to any possible military applications in his research, was the most prominent of the four Iranian nuclear scientists and technicians who were killed by terrorists between 2010 and 2012. He was a leader in the development of Iran’s atomic power research and development program and was internationally respected for his expertise in quantum physics and neutron transport.

Within the international intelligence community, it has been generally understood that Mossad planned and prepared the killing of Shahriari and the others, attacks which were almost certainly carried out by associates of the radical Marxist group Mujaheddin e Khalq (MEK).

The assassinations were based on the false premise that Iran had a nuclear weapons program that could be disrupted by killing the scientists and technicians involved. Two comprehensive studies by the American government’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) conducted in 2007 and 2012 determined that no such program existed and that Iran had never taken any serious steps to initiate such research. Israel was also aware that there was no program. Nevertheless, the Israeli government, sometimes working in collusion with the American CIA, took steps to interfere with Iran’s existing and completely legal and open to inspection atomic energy program by identifying then killing its scientists and introducing viruses into its computer systems. This was in spite of the fact that Iran was fully compliant with international norms on nuclear research and it was a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which Israel, possessing its own nuclear arsenal, had refused to sign.

As a result of last year’s signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the so-called P5+1 consisting of the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain, and the European Union, any remaining concerns that Tehran might even be considering the development of a nuclear weapons program were greatly diminished. Iran has since that time been in compliance with the agreement, possible nuclear proliferation has been avoided, and, apart from the fulminations of certain anti-Iranian politicians in the United States, the signatories to the agreement have expressed their complete satisfaction with the outcome. It is now up to Washington to live up to its part of the agreement by easing remaining restrictions that are being imposed against Iranian financial institutions and regarding the purchase of some commercially available dual use technologies.

But in spite of the relative stability provided by the JCPOA, the meticulously planned and executed death of Shahriari must not be forgotten, if only to remind the world of the ruthlessness which Mossad and other intelligence agencies often pursue their targets even when those they victimize do not really constitute actual threats. Majid Shahriari was killed one morning as he was driving into work in Tehran. He was in a Peugeot that was making its way slowly through the heavy rush hour traffic when a motorcycle pulled up next to him as it weaved its way among the cars. The motorcyclist attached a bomb to the Peugeot’s window before he drove off and detonated the device by remote control from a distance. Shahriari died in the blast and two other occupants of the vehicle were injured. At the same time, another car in another part of Tehran was attacked in the same fashion, though the couple inside realized what was happening and managed to get out. They too were injured.

Majid Shahriari left behind a scientist wife and two young children. It should be observed that even though MEK was the likely perpetrator of the attacks, the technical aspects of the operation were far beyond its limited capabilities. First of all, it was necessary to identify the scientists who were to be targeted, no simple task as the Iranian government and atomic energy agency would have taken steps to restrict such information. Only a major foreign intelligence service would have had the capability to penetrate secure government communications to learn who the scientists were and where they lived, to permit an attack to be planned and executed. Both CIA and Mossad would have had such capability and both are also known to have contact with MEK, a relationship that was and still is particularly close in the case of the Israelis.

After identifying the targets and working out a plan for connecting with them it would have been necessary to engage in extensive surveillance to make sure that the approach and timing would work flawlessly. That would require time, training, and money to support the activity, exactly the sort of thing that a state sponsored intelligence agency would be good at. Then it was necessary to devise the bombs to be used to kill the targets. This was no simple matter in practice because the bombs that were put together were highly sophisticated and designed to kill all the occupants of the vehicle. They were shaped charges that directed the blast into the car and they also incorporated small metal projectiles that would fill the target vehicle with a lethal spray.

Among intelligence agencies Israel has the best deserved reputation for being an organization that favors the use of assassinations, so the suggestion that it was behind the killing of Shahriari and several of his colleagues as well as the attempted assassinations of others fits neatly into the Mossad modus operandi. The United States, also no friend of Iran, almost certainly provided support to other programs like the creation of the Stuxnet virus that crippled Iran’s scientific computers, but would likely balk at the assassination of civilian scientists. Israel would have no such misgivings and has, in fact, killed civilians in all the countries that surround it.

Majid Shahriari certainly should be remembered for his exemplary work as a scientist, but his assassination should also be a reminder that Israel makes up its own rules and its ruthlessness in dealing with its neighbors should be clearly and candidly recognized for what it is.

–

Philip Giraldi is a former CIA Case Officer and Army Intelligence Officer who spent twenty years overseas in Europe and the Middle East working terrorism cases. He holds a BA with honors from the University of Chicago and an MA and PhD in Modern History from the University of London. In addition to TAC, where he has been a contributing editor for nine years, he writes regularly for Antiwar.com. He is currently Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest.

By Philip Giraldi, IRI Center,

December 1, 2016 0 comments

Iran

Iran’s letter to Mogherini about MKO terrorists

IRAN – In the Name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate

Her. Excellency Ms. Federica Mogherini

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

Excellency;

Due to ongoing crimes and terrorist nature of Monafegheen terrorists (MKO) on the one hand, and freedom of movement of its agents in some European countries, I would like to share some points with you in this regard. Since the glorious Islamic Revolution in 1979 so far, Islamic Republic of Iran has been one of the biggest victims of terrorism both domestic and foreign ones. In the meantime, tens of thousands of innocent people have been martyred or injured by them. Terrorist groups have targeted men, women, children, the old, and scientists.

Meanwhile, the greatest terrors which are crime against humanity, were conducted by Monafegheen terrorists in Iran. The group since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution started to avenge innocent people by carrying out explosions in populated centers, assassinating officials of the country, attacking people with guns and knives, abduction, torturing people and committing betrayal by being involved in espionage on behalf of the Baath regime of Saddam. It should be noted that out of 17000 of martyrs assassinated in Iran, 12000 of them have been martyred by this terrorist group.

To introduce this terrorist group, it is enough to say that its highest priority and the main basis for performance is to kill and assassinate those who denied and disagreed with them. This can be evidenced in documents and statements issued by them. There is no doubt that killing and murdering innocent people in unscrupulous ways by planting bombs in civilian areas, is the most obvious and egregious violation of human rights. On the same basis, the agents of this terrorist organization martyred officials, including the president, prime minister, head of the judiciary power, ministers, MPs, prominent clergymen and citizens in a wide scale in 1981. After assassinating the officials, they started murdering innocent people and only between 1982 to 1988, they martyred more than 12000 people that all the names and documents are available. Another crime of this group is treason to the country and espionage for the hostile governments. During the imposed war of Iraq against Iran, this group provided the Baath regime with information on gathering places of Iranian civilians to be targeted by the Iraqi missiles.

Innocent people of other countries in the region including Iraq and Syria have witnessed this group’s crimes as well. After being deployed in Iraq, Monafegheen affiliates in collaboration with Saddam’s regime, committed broad crimes against various tribes in this country including the Shiites and Kurds. Only in one of their crimes named ” Al-Anfal Campaign” and conducted from February to September 1988 in Kirkuk, Dialeh, Neynava and Salahedin, more than 3000 villages were destroyed and more than 182000 defenseless population of those areas were killed horribly including through burring alive, decapitating, burning and mass shooting. Many countries have recognized this crime as genocide and a resolution has been adopted against it. This terrorist group after the beginning of other terrorist groups’ activities in Syria and Iraq since 2011, along with other terrorists in Syria participated in mass killing of Syrians especially in “Daraa” region and also helped training other terrorists.

Leaders of this criminal group have no mercy on their opponents and killed them brutally and also have had no mercy on their own affiliates and members. By adopting harsh rules, those who violate these rules are being kept in dungeon, executed, emasculated, brutally tortured, and have been separated from their children and spouses for long times. In order to make the female members following the harsh rules, head of this group had the woman undergone hysterectomy, and in an inhuman and immoral action he made some of the women separate from their husbands and forced them to marry him.

However, unfortunately we are witnessing with such a black history, this terrorist group has had offices in some European countries and despite repeated requests of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its affiliates have traveled freely throughout European countries without any legal proceedings and some of these countries have turned into a safe haven for them.

Taking into account the immunity granted to this group by the Western countries and rolling out the red carpet for them to participate in the meetings of their parliaments and even providing them with financial assistance, it is unfortunate to see that heads of this criminal and dangerous group have adopted themselves a human rights image and are calling themselves as human right supporters.

Whit a look at official documents issued by the governmental and security institutions affiliated with Western countries, they have repeatedly acknowledged the terrorist nature of Monafegheenand sanctioned it. For example, in a report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States in 2004, while pointing out that the group is on the list of terrorist groups, said the National Council of Resistance (MKO), considers terrorism as a tool to deal with the Iranian government. District of Columbia Court of Appeals in America in July 2010 also states that the group is training suicide bombing to some of its female forces. Canada put this group on its list of terrorist groups till 2012. European Union until 2009, each year placed the group’s name on the list of terrorist groups and before that, a lot of documents and statements were issued by various European countries’ officials in recognizing the terrorist nature of the group.

After suspiciously and politically removing the name of this group from terrorist groups list, unfortunately it is witnessed that some European governmental officials and parliamentarians as well as representatives of the European Parliament while neglecting clear lies of this group in human rights issues and committed crimes, support this group by issuing statements. For instance, we can mention the rally and meeting held by this group in Paris on 9 July 2016 with the presence of some representatives of the parliaments of European countries.

Lies of this group in defending human rights and opposition to the death penalty can be realized by taking a look at their background as well as the statement issued by the leader of this group in November 2014. In the statement, he has asked all his followers not only to assassinate Islamic Republic of Iran’s officials and their opponents, but also urged them to arrest and kill all of the organization’s members who have escaped.

Having looked at the brief facts that some of them mentioned above, every clean natured and free human beings will seriously think how some of countries that claim to support human rights, can call a group which is responsible for the blood of thousands of innocent women and children, imprisoning and torturing women, taking out the uterus of women and castrating them, forcing woman to divorce and forced marriage, a human rights defender? How this paradox can be explained that countries which are now claiming to fight terrorism in Iraq and Syria, support one of the biggest organized terrorist groups which its hands are stained with blood of thousands of Iraqis and Syrian?

Expansion of the hardships and dangers of terrorism and its spread to other European countries as well as the negative consequences stemming from it, including refugee crisis that European countries have been grappling, clearly prove the needs for a serious determination to fight terrorism. Adopting double standards towards human rights and instrumental view regarding it, supporting a group that for many years have killed thousands of Iranian people and their hatred is ingrained in the hearts of the people of Iran, is not at all acceptable. Therefore, I would ask your Excellency and other European authorities to take into account the extensive crimes committed by this terrorist group, and take serious measures to prevent the members and supporters of this group from freely operating in Europe and bring the leaders and criminal members of the group to justice and hold them accountable.

In concluding, in order to know the true nature of this organization and some aspects of the crimes committed by it, I invite your Excellency to refer to attached electronic files.

Mohammad-Javad Larijani

Secretary General of the High Council for Human rights

Judiciary of the Islami Republic of Iran (High Council For Human Rights),

November 24, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Saudi raises ante in hostility with Iran by attending terrorist gathering

Saudi Arabia’s former spy chief has attended an annual meeting of a terrorist group highly detested in Iran, raising the stakes in the kingdom’s confrontational ways with the Islamic Republic.

Prince Turki al-Faisal’s 30-minute address to the gathering of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) in Paris on Saturday showed that a tie-up between the outfit and Takfiri groups might be in the making with the help of the Saudis.

Iranian officials and political observers said Sunday the development pointed to likely Riyadh plans to resuscitate the moribund group and link it with the Takfiris in order to coordinate attacks on Iran.

The MKO is the most hated terrorist group by the Iranians because of its history of assassinations and bombings and for siding with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in his eight-year war on Iran in the 1980s.

Faisal’s overt pronouncement of support for the terrorist group marks a turning point in Saudi Arabia’s hostility with Iran and the kingdom’s lack of concern about the sensitivities of the Iranians.

Under the new Saudi rulers, Riyadh has adopted an aggressive policy toward Iran and its allies which are helping Iraq and Syria fight a menacing Takfiri militancy.

Takfirism, which is the trademark of many terrorist groups operating in the region, is largely influenced by Wahhabism, the radical ideology dominating Saudi Arabia and freely preached by Saudi clerics.

‘Political idiocy’

The Paris fiasco is the latest in a litany of recent diplomatic missteps by Saudi Arabia, including its scandalous pressure on the UN to remove Riyadh from a list of children’s rights violators.

Reacting to Prince Turki’s participation at the MKO gathering, an Iranian Foreign Ministry official said the kingdom is using terrorists as "a tool to advance its objectives against Muslim countries."

"It was not unlikely from the godfather of Taliban and al-Qaeda as well as the partner of the Zionists to display its desperation with a new instance of obscenity and political idiocy through participation at the gathering of bankrupt mercenary terrorists," the official said.

"The desperation of the Saudis and their resort to registered terrorists in this showdown indicates that for them, as they have shown in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, terrorism and terrorists are a tool to advance their objectives against Muslim countries in the region," he added.

Saudi autocracy and promise of freedom

In his speech, Faisal pledged to stand by the MKO in what he described as the terrorist outfit’s efforts against the Iranian establishment.

Faisal, who currently chairs the Board of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, also made outrageous remarks against Iran’s revolutionary leaders.

He described MKO terrorists as a hope for “freeing Iran of oppression.”

The terrorist group, which has built a cult-like following, is known for brutal elimination of its own members over dissent. It also keeps tight tabs on social media where Internet and cellphones are nonexistent among its inner circles.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has a dismal record for human rights abuses where dissent is not tolerated. Shia Muslims are a regular target of crackdown and discrimination and women’s rights in the kingdom are among the most restricted in the world.

The current crisis in diplomatic ties came after Iran condemned Saudi execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a respected Shia cleric and an outspoken government critic, along with 47 people on a single day in January.

Several international rights groups, including Amnesty International, lashed out at Saudi Arabia for its "surging" and "arbitrary" use of the death penalty and routinely putting people to death for their views.

Praise of defunct terrorist leaders

In his speech, the Saudi prince referred to the notorious terror group’s current head Maryam Rajavi, who was in the audience, as “Mrs. Maryam Rajavi and your late husband Massoud Rajavi.”

The former MKO leader has made no public appearance since 2003, raising speculations that he might be dead even though the terrorist outfit does not confirm that.

The MKO has carried out numerous terrorist attacks against Iranian civilians and government officials over the past three decades. Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist attacks since the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, about 12,000 have fallen victim to MKO’s acts of terror.

Washington and the European Union have removed the MKO from their list of terrorist organizations and the group currently enjoys freedom of movement and activity in the US and Europe, including regular meetings with American and European politicians.

What we know about Prince Turki and Saudi Arabia

Under Faisal, Saudi intelligence created al-Qaeda in Afghanistan jointly with US and Pakistani spy agencies. He has acknowledged meeting al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

In 2002, Prince Turki was named in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit by the families of September 11 victims. A court affidavit filed in 2015 claimed that convicted al-Qaeda plotter Zacarias Moussaoui served as a courier between bin Laden and Faisal.

Saudi Arabia is widely believed to have been providing funds and weapons to militants fighting to topple the Syrian and Iraqi governments.

Under the pretext of fighting Iranian influence, the kingdom has also been waging a destructive war on Yemen which has claimed thousands of innocent lives so far.

July 28, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Supporting the MKO is big waste of time and money

Saudis, Iran must resume dialogue; MKO a big imposture

Supporting the MKO is big waste of time and money,vice chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French Senate said.

Tehran and Riyadh have to make effort to bear each other and restart a dialogue, Nathalie Goulet, vice chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French Senate told Trend.

Recently, the long-escalated relations between Tehran and Riyadh worsened after participating of Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi former intelligence chief, in Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization’s (MKO) annual meeting in the Le Bourget, near Paris on July 9.

MKO is considered a terrorist group by Iran because of its history of assassinations and bombings against Iranian authorities and for siding with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, which resulted in about a million casualties from the Iranian side.

“The most challenging issue is to restore trust and get rid of irrational fears or feeling of superiority between Iran and Saudi. The world security needs both KSA and Iran,” Goulet said.

Saudi Arabia’s important role in Middle East peace

Goulet said that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) was known as a major oil producing country in the world and stayed out of the limelight before the Gulf War.

“When Saddam Hussein targeted Saudi Arabia in retaliation to the US offensive, the Kingdom was alarmed that it needed better defensive measures. The regional events after the new millennium encouraged the Kingdom to take on a more active role in the region. The economic power of the country grew steadily and helped the Kingdom to establish itself as one of the major players in the region,” the senator said.

She added that with the current administration in Saudi Arabia and their desire to play a more constructive role in regional peace and stability, France welcomes such efforts.

“France and the Kingdom remain good partners in fighting terrorism worldwide and are determined to uproot this global disease. Of course we do have other partners in the region, sharing the same goal and we will work hard to create a stronger and stable consensus to speed up the counter terrorism efforts,” said Goulet.

Riyad is a member of US-led coalition in fight against Islamic State (IS) terrorist group and Iran also helps Iraq and Syria to battle against this group separately.

Goulet said that France welcomes the true efforts of KSA to control financing of terrorism, however, it’s obvious that restoring peace and security in the Middle East will not come overnight.

She added that as the guardian of the two holy mosques in Mecca and Medina, KSA has to play a major role in fighting Islamic extremism.

“I had the chance and the privilege to meet HRH Muhammed Bin Salman and Foreign Minister Al Jaiber in Paris. I fully trust their will to be successful in their vision of KSA 2030. Our standards are really far from KSA’s rules and regulation. More cooperation will help a lot to achieve the goals,” she said.

Supporting MKO – waste of time and energy

Coming to MKO’s meeting in France and participating of a former top Saudi official there, Goulet said that “we always encourage the countries in the region to establish closer relationship for more enduring regional peace. The recent gathering of exiled Iranian terrorist group in France known as MKO and presence of some Saudi figures hopefully shall not be interpreted as position of current administration of KSA”.

Members of the MKO fled to Iraq in 1986, where they enjoyed the support of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up Camp Ashraf near the Iranian border in Diyala.

The group has carried out numerous terrorist acts against Iranian civilians and government officials. The terror organization is also known to have cooperated with Saddam in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds in the north.

Goulet said that the MKO is a big imposture and tries to appear as a solution for a replacement of Iranian regime.

“Anyone involved in the regional policy knows that MKO has no foot print inside Iran and have in fact acted as mercenaries against Iranians during the Iran-Iraq War. Even if you dislike the Iranian regime, supporting the MKO will not help to get a new regime. No one in Iran will support MKO as it betrayed this country by supporting Iraq during a terrible war," Goulet said.

She added that supporting MKO will just bring more solidarity among Iranian people and will create more misunderstanding between the two nations. “It is big waste of time and money,” she added.

By Dalga Khatinoglu / Trend.az / Baku, Azerbaijan

July 26, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

The role of MKO Terrorist organization in the suppression of labor and student protests In France!

After a lot of ups and downs and long period of time the terrorist Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (the MKO) with records full of multiple crimes including association with aggressive dictator Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq to participate in the suppression of the uprising in Basra and receiving permission to march in the streets of Baghdad, tragic suppression of Iraqi Kurds, receiving 30 thousand of hectares of agricultural lands for the expansion of Camp Ashraf, and above all of them, involvement in killing of Iranian people which according to their own admission killed more than 50,000 innocent people, has now placed its main headquarters in Auvers-sur-Oise, Paris, France.

Meanwhile, even with the covert movements in France and even Europe the MKO puts the information from the students and labor protests of the French people at the disposal of intelligence services so that the police were able to avoid the presence of protesters in the streets faster, According to available records they may also directly cooperate with the police crackdown on student protests In exchange for certain advantages.

After three month of rebellion in Paris, by hiring some travel agencies as tourism from Central Asia and also few fans in Europe Rajavi’s group add some new members to their wild organization’s for Maryam Rajavi’s speech on July 9 in Paris.

Shouldn’t people and fighters of justice for laborers be aware of cooperation between Rajavi’s criminals and French police?

Do you think it is the right of the people of Paris to know that, there are criminals in their neighbors who would use any nation and person as a bait to achieve their purposes?

The people of Iraq carried out various protests against this terrorist group which led to violence, it is necessary for French protesters to be aware of these undemocratic dirty work that is remained of the Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, they should know that their taxes are spend on crackdown of the French youth and binge of leaders of the terrorist organization of MKO (the hypocrites).

Isn’t it time that this group of spies and anti-people be expelled from France due to the recent terrorist acts in Paris to make people feel more secure.

Facebook of Iranian students in Europe

June 13, 2016 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Will President Rouhani meet genuine human rights advocates halfway?

President Rouhani’s visit to Europe this week is a reminder of how much has changed since last July. But Iran’s eventual rehabilitation into the international community is by no means a done deal. Now that the nuclear deal has been struck and sanctions lifted, what is the next demand to be made of Iran? All sides appear to agree that it should be based around Iran’s human rights record.

Of course, the ultimate aim of any genuine human rights activist must surely be for the UNCHR, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to one day be able to open offices in Tehran. Access for the UN Special Rapporteur Ahmad Shahid to visit Iran would be a good start. The way this might be achieved reveals a lot about the different approaches and real aims of those voicing concerns over Iran’s human rights record.

But although when President Rouhani arrives in France he will be greeted by President Hollande and French businesses, he will also be jeered by protestors and demonstrators.

One group of protestors believe that improvements in human rights will only come about through engagement, dialogue and diplomacy. They demand that Rouhani brings Iran to conform with international standards and laws. The country needs to be opened up to greater scrutiny – a bit like the nuclear inspections regime. Activists like Shirin Ebadi further acknowledge that indigenous pressure groups can only flourish in an atmosphere of security, stability and economic prosperity.

Other protestors, like the Mojahedin Khalq, are simply ratcheting up a new phase of post-nuclear anti-Iran protest. Their demand is ‘Don’t let Rouhani into France’. They say that the only way to make Iran comply with the international community’s demand for improved human rights is for Iran to be isolated and threatened with regime change. This aggressive stance, shared by neoconservatives, Israel and Saudi Arabia, is profoundly incompatible with human rights. Nowhere has this been more nakedly stated than in Senator John McCain’s warning that “peace with Iran could greatly limit our ability to bomb it“. Although recent events in Libya, Iraq and Syria should be a salutary lesson in how difficult it is to bomb regime change into country.

Iran’s president was elected to office on a two-pronged platform of alleviating economic sanctions and improving human rights. He – his government – has achieved the first. Sanctions have been lifted, a sensitive prisoner exchange negotiated with the US and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed a mega $600billion trade deal with the Islamic Republic. Next, Rohani will arrive in France with a shopping list: 114 Airbus jest.

It is not going to be possible to put this economic genie back in the bottle. Britain’s newly appointed trade envoy, Lord Lamont has identified Iran as “the world’s biggest emerging market since the collapse of the Soviet Union 25 years ago“, and warns that “Britain is languishing behind rivals in its share of business.”

So it is certainly right for the international community to hold President Rouhani to his promise to improve human rights in Iran. How this is done demands mutual acknowledgement of where Iran stands and what is possible.

Rohani has said that he will use the nuclear negotiations with world powers as a model for pursuing Iran’s domestic policy goals. Certainly he will capitalise on Iran’s success in Syria and Iraq to assert Iran’s regional power on the international stage – Rohani is unequivocally part of the establishment, Iran’s military are allies not rivals – but his preferred agenda is clearly to strengthen civic society and the rule of law.

Does this signal that Iran is prepared to meet genuine human rights advocates halfway? Dialogue and negotiation will widen Iran’s engagement with the international community just as economic prosperity and stability will provide ground to strengthen indigenous pressure groups. Maybe this is a trade-off Iran is now in a position to accept. In contrast, those who advocate improving human rights through the barrel of a gun will surely become more and more isolated and their arguments more and more redundant.

By Massoud Khodabandh Middle East Strategy Consultants,

January 28, 2016 0 comments

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