The Iranian American scholar, Dr. Sasan Fayazmanesh discussed the group\u2019s history as \u201can autocratic, Marxist-oriented terrorist organization with little popular support in Iran and little credibility outside\u201d. 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\u2019s opportunistic tactics asserting, \u201dMEK 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.\u201d He adds, \u201cThis 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: \u201cIranian national movements and their masses strongly denounced the Iranian regime\u2019s alliance with US imperialism, World Zionism and regional reactionaries to launch aggression against Iraq\u2026\u201d [2]<\/p>\n
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: \u201cThere 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 \u201cdemocratic, pluralistic and secular\u201d. \u00a0[3]<\/p>\n
Dr. Fayazmanesh determines when a \u201ccult centered around an individual\u201d 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 \u201cvarious patrons\u201d to meet its aims but \u201cthe opposite is usually the case\u201d. The US and Israel as well as Saddam Hussein have just a \u201dtemporary use\u201d for them. [4]<\/p>\n
The Iranian American journalist Ali Gharib\u2019s recent piece on Lobelog about Zionists-MKO relations also points out how terribly this relationship is based on benefits of Israel. \u201cPerhaps 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),\u201d writes Ali Gharib. \u201cThe 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\u2019t know about Rajavi and the MEK\u2019s history: its violence, its cult-like behavior, and its own history of human rights violations. What they do see\u2014however problematic it might be for the rest of us\u2014is a group monomaniacally focused on overthrowing their nemesis, the Islamic Republic, and that\u2019s good enough.\u201d [5]<\/p>\n
Gharib points out the controversial deed of a Zionist lobby group named The Israeli Project<\/em>. \u201cBut 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,\u201d He asserts.\u201d That\u2019s 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: \u201cThe MEK is a terrorist organization. Right? Let\u2019s not kid ourselves.\u201d Yes, let\u2019s not.\u201d [6]<\/p>\n By: Mazda Parsi<\/p>\n Sources:<\/p>\n [1] Abrahamian, Ervand, The Iranian Mojahedin, Yale University Press, 1992<\/p>\n [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<\/p>\n [3] ibid<\/p>\n [4] ibid<\/p>\n [5] Gharib, Ali, The Israel Project Boosts An Iranian \u201cTerrorist Organization\u201d, The Lobelog, March 18, 2016<\/p>\n [6] ibid<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Iranian American journalist Ali Gharib\u2019s recent piece on Lobelog about Zionists-MKO relations also points out how terribly this relationship is based on benefits of Israel. \u201cPerhaps 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),\u201d writes Ali Gharib..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[79,85,178],"module":[81],"ctype":[17],"blog":[3],"class_list":["post-6467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mujahedin-khalq-proxy-force","tag-mujahedin-khalq-declining","tag-mujahedin-khalq-terrorism","tag-pmoi-iran-people","module-article","ctype-story","blog-nejat-bloggers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6467","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=6467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6467"},{"taxonomy":"module","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/module?post=6467"},{"taxonomy":"ctype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctype?post=6467"},{"taxonomy":"blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog?post=6467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}