{"id":8191,"date":"2018-04-19T16:57:47","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T12:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/?p=8191"},"modified":"2021-01-21T19:25:20","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T15:55:20","slug":"meks-role-is-to-toxify-political-debate-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/posts\/8191","title":{"rendered":"MEK\u2019s Role Is To Toxify Political Debate On Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Politicians and experts gathered in the European Parliament last week to discuss the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) threat to Albania.<\/p>\n

Albania, a small NATO country in the Balkans, has found itself increasingly coerced against its own political will into taking positions alien to its national interests.<\/p>\n\n

That coercion has come indirectly from the Americans through the agency of the discredited Mojahedin Khalq terrorist organisation (MEK) also known as the Rajavi Cult. The MEK has been present in Albania since 2013 when they were transferred from Iraq under a secret agreement between the American and Albanian governments and MEK leaders. Under this deal, the UNHCR agreed to move them while the MEK agreed to \u2018behave\u2019 and pay their own expenses. The Americans said they would establish a De-Radicalization Institute \u2013 a prelude to bringing more \u2018terrorists\u2019 in future. The budget languishes unspent with the American embassy in Tirana. Instead, by the end of 2016, there were 2,745 radicalized MEK in Albania who have re-grouped in a closed, isolated paramilitary training camp they named Camp Ashraf Three, to resume their anti-Iran activities unhindered.<\/p>\n

Calling for regime change against another country is a criminal offence in Albania. But this has not stopped the MEK from doing exactly this. They have even drafted in several American supporters \u2013 John Bolton, John McCain, Rudi Giuliani \u2013 to come and add \u2018veracity\u2019 to their claim to be ready to overthrow the Iranian government from Albania. This is a problem not least because Albania is a peaceful country which, after its emergence from the controls of Soviet Russia, is proud of its religious tolerance and freedom of speech. Albania has also enjoyed a long history of shared traditional and cultural links with Iran. In the febrile atmosphere of US-Russia tensions, provoking enmity against Iran is not in Albania\u2019s national interests at all.<\/p>\n

In this context, experts on the MEK and political representatives from Albania gathered in the European Parliament on Tuesday 10th April, as MEPs Ana Gomes and Patricia Lalonde hosted a round-table meeting titled \u2018Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) threat in Albania\u2019 to discuss the problem.<\/p>\n

Ms Gomes had called for an open debate but had to inform delegates that over thirty of her colleagues had signed an MEK instigated letter demanding the meeting should not go ahead. Ms Gomes denounced this approach saying that with the JCPOA in place and with an eye to the human rights situation in Iran, it is vital for the European Parliament to engage in dialogue with and about the Islamic Republic of Iran, even though it is obvious both sides will have very different opinions and views. The MEK are profoundly undemocratic and certainly do not believe in freedom of speech. That they are able to influence political behaviour in the EUP to try to silence MEPs is totally unacceptable.<\/p>\n

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