When it comes to the alleged US government\u2019s efforts to bring democracy to the world and particularly the Middle East, journalists, analysts and scholars across the world never hesitate to cover the love affairs of prominent US politicians with the insurgents, extremists and terrorist groups including the Mujahedin Khalq (MKO\/ MEK\/ PMOI\/ the Cult of Rajavi). In case of the MEK, the relationship is more controversial because of the group\u2019s past anti-American, Anti-Imperialism background.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), which was once a sworn enemy of the United States, has over the past few years reinvented itself as a tactical ally to several Western governments in view of its desire to see Iran\u2019s government collapse,\u201d Catherine Shakdam of citizentruth.org<\/a> writes. The old saying \u201cThe enemy of my enemy is my friend\u201d is the root of these notorious affairs. [1]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Indeed, the US sponsorship for the cult-like MEK group –although it was once listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department\u2014 together with Saudi dollars has led the group to organize its new headquarters in Albania to launch its propaganda campaign against the Iranian Government.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the support of the United States and a few other governments, the MEK has assembled a group of mainly elderly people who create social media accounts under fictitious names, and \u2018tweet\u2019 and post anti-Iranian information,\u201d Robert Fantina writes in the CounterPunch<\/a>. \u201cThey write articles and submit them, often successfully (one must give them credit for deceiving some major U.S. news outlets) under the name of a non-existent journalist. Like all those social media accounts, said journalist is a figment of MEK\u2019s creative imagination. They take their instructions from a woman who sees herself as Iran\u2019s new savior. They see themselves as being able, with the assistance of the U.S., of course, to defeat the 40-year-old people\u2019s revolution.\u201d [2]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
As a recent article by Murtaza Hussain in The Intercept states<\/a>, MEK has become a reference point to for the US government to formulate its Iranian agenda. The Intercept article reads:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2018, President Donald Trump was seeking to jettison the landmark nuclear deal that his predecessor had signed with Iran in 2015, and he was looking for ways to win over a skeptical press. The White House claimed that the nuclear deal had allowed Iran to increase its military budget, and Washington Post reporters Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly asked for a source. In response, the White House passed along an article published in Forbes by a writer named Heshmat Alavi.\u201d [3]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
However, \u201cHeshmat Alavi appears not to exist. Alavi\u2019s persona is a propaganda operation run by the Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e-Khalq, which is known by the initials MEK, two sources told The Intercept<\/strong>.\u201d Alavi, the Intercepts suggests, is the outcome of the US-MEK-Saudi effort for war against Iranian nation. [4]
\nThe notorious relation also includes the Albanian politicians. As the Canadian-Albanian historian Olsi Jazexhi tells the Balkan Post<\/a>, \u201cThe MEK has created a state within a state in Albania like Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda created in Afghanistan in the era of Mullah Omar.\u201d
\n\u201cAlbanian police, courts, prosecutors etc. have no power over the MEK,\u201d Dr. Jazexhi asserts. \u201cIf any state body will ever dare to challenge what the MEK is doing \u2013 they will face the wrath of the Americans. By hosting the MEK and supporting its illegal activities the Americans have turned Albania into a kind of a European Guantanamo Bay.\u201d
\nHe warns about the influence of the US policy over Albanian politicians.<\/p>\n\u201cIf you ask in private any Albanian politicians \u2013 including those who attend the MEK meetings with Maryam Rajavi \u2013 as to how much democratic MEK is, they will laugh,\u201d he reveals. \u201cThe most enthusiastic supporters of the MEK will tell you in private \u201cwe know that they are terrorists. But America has told us to support them and we do it.\u201d [5]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Dr. Jazexhi believes that many Albanians have now understood that the democratic system that the Americans would like to install in Iran will look like the regime of Edi Rama in Albania or the cult of Maryam Rajavi. \u201cA \u201cdemocracy\u201d like the democracy of the time of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi when the U.S. Embassy was determining the fate of the Iranian nation,\u201d he says. [6]
\nBut, is it a rational argument by warmongers to invest on the terrorist cultist like the MEK?<\/strong>
\n\u201cTo disavow Iran politically should not translate into an alliance of convenience with groups we know to have promoted and perpetrated heinous acts of terrorism,\u201d Catherine Shakdam suggests. \u201cRecent attempts at regime change in Libya and Syria, through the weaponization of less than desirable factions, on the basis that the end justified the means should serve as cautionary tales.\u201d [7]
\n\u201cTo offer more than an ear to a group, which not too long ago, rejoiced at the misfortune of U.S. diplomats certainly flies in the face of the America President Trump has been not only so keen on but vocal on defending and promoting,\u201d she writes.
\nGeorgio Cafiero of Inside Arabia<\/a> sees Shakdam\u2019s hypothesis for a US-MEK led regime change in Iran as impossible. He properly concludes:
\n\u201cRealistically, the MEK lacks any means to mobilize support in Iran for an overthrow of the regime. Furthermore, if there is one thing that unites all Iranians of different affiliations, it is the loathing for a cult that sided with Iraq during its war against their homeland\u2026 it is difficult to imagine a group, which still castigates its defecting members, successfully orchestrating a regime change in Iran, let alone one that is coordinated from southeastern Europe\u2026Yet none of the actors that want to see the Iranian regime fall should have any reason to believe that the MEK is a reliable actor capable of bringing about the desired outcome.\u201d [8]
\nUltimately, Robert Fantina provides the best answer:<\/p>\n\u201cThe MEK and its criminal members and leaders will not prevail; the Iranian people are proud of what they have accomplished, and will not allow a few disillusioned people, even those who have the support of the United States, to defeat them.\u201d [9]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
By Mazda Parsi<\/p>\n
References:
\n[1] Shakdam, Catherine, Is the Trump Administration Allowing a Terrorist Group to Shape Its Iran Policy?, citizentruth.org, August 2nd , 2019.
\n[2] Fantina, Robert,The MEK: Illusion vs. Reality, Counter Punch, August 2nd , 2019.
\n[3] Hussain, Murtaza, An Iranian Activist Wrote Dozens of Articles for Right-Wing Outlets. But Is He a Real Person?, The Intercept, June 9th, 2019.
\n[4] ibid
\n[5] Balkan Post, The American \u2018democratic alternative against Iran\u2019 is helping Albania slide toward authoritarianism, August 6th, 2019.
\n[6] ibid
\n[7] Shakdam, Catherine, Is the Trump Administration Allowing a Terrorist Group to Shape Its Iran Policy?, citizentruth.org, August 2nd , 2019.
\n[8] Cafiero, Giorgio, MEK: Totalitarian Cult, or Iran\u2019s Brightest Hope for \u201cDemocracy\u201d?, Inside Arabia, Aug 5th, 2019.
\n[9] Fantina, Robert,The MEK: Illusion vs. Reality, Counter Punch, August 2nd , 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it comes to the alleged US government\u2019s efforts to bring democracy to the world and particularly the Middle East, journalists, analysts and scholars across the world never hesitate to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[680],"module":[81],"ctype":[17],"blog":[3],"class_list":["post-10133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mujahedin-khalq-proxy-force","tag-mko-members-in-albania","module-article","ctype-story","blog-nejat-bloggers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10133"},{"taxonomy":"module","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/module?post=10133"},{"taxonomy":"ctype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctype?post=10133"},{"taxonomy":"blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog?post=10133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}