{"id":8341,"date":"2018-06-11T09:59:49","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T05:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/?p=8341"},"modified":"2021-01-21T19:25:36","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T15:55:36","slug":"iran-interlink-weekly-digest-231","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/posts\/8341","title":{"rendered":"Iran Interlink Weekly Digest \u2013 231"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>++ Over the past few weeks, Rajavi has been stuck between the past and the present and can\u2019t answer the members. In particular the older ones. She has started to appease them now by publishing articles about the MEK\u2019s founders and in praise of Che Guevara. While doing that she attacks the ex-members, saying they have deviated from the path of the founders and of the revolutionaries, etc and have betrayed them. Commentators say: \u2018From this we can see that you are stuck. Let us remind you, you are not Che! He didn\u2019t betray his own country or side with the enemy as you have done.\u2019 Others have commented: \u2018You have to accept that you have changed. This is not the same organisation it was then. MEK has undergone a profound change and is now a mercenary force.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>++ As MEK members are escaping, Rajavi has tried to close Camp Ashraf Three. No visas are issued for leave. In spite of this, another person managed to run away this week. He is a well-known, high-ranking member whose name we will not put out now. He has been with MEK since the very beginning. In addition, we have two or three more escapees over the past few weeks who are also veteran members.<\/p>\n<p>++ Farsi commentators remind the MEK: \u2018You are staging the 30th Khordad event which is to commemorate the execution of the MEK founders who were arrested and tried for killing Americans. They were executed by a puppet of the Americans, the Shah. Now you invite American extremists like Rudi Giuliani and far right Zionists to your event and you expect the members not to run away! The members expect, after 40 years shouting about anti-Imperialism, that at least you take a stance over what is happening in Gaza, but Rajavi and the MEK remain silent.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>++ Netherlands media has reported on the trial of gangsters who murdered Mohammad Reza Kolahi, (aka Ali Motamed), in the Netherlands in 2015. It has been officially acknowledged that Kolahi is the MEK member who planted the bomb in the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party (Hezb Jomhouri) in 1981 which killed 72 leading officials. There is now speculation over who ordered the killing of this man. There are two suspects. One is Iran, which has obvious grievances. The other is Rajavi, who is desperate to whitewash the MEK\u2019s past. She wants closure on the association with terrorism by eliminating those who are known perpetrators \u2013 especially people like Kolahi or Massoud Keshmiri and others. Massoud Khodabandeh commented: \u2018These two never enjoyed their lives as they did not want to stay with MEK from the start but could not leave because of their past. They were always haunted; by Iran over what they did and by Rajavi for fear of their future. One is now dead. Let\u2019s hope the others can go to the European authorities and they can save their lives and escape their miserable existence.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>In English:<\/p>\n<p>++ Massoud Khodabandeh was interviewed on Richard Engel\u2019s On Assignment for MSNBC. The segment, titled \u2018The MEK\u2019s Man inside the White House\u2019 raised concerns over the influence of MEK advocates like Giuliani and Bolton who now occupy influential roles in the White House. Khodabandeh described the MEK as a \u2018destructive cult\u2019. MEK reacted by creating a plethora of new websites and social media accounts dedicated to denouncing Engel as \u2018an agent of the Iranian regime\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>++ Gareth Smyth wrote \u2018Iran\u2019s Future: Hybrid Nationalism?\u2019 for Lobelog in response to Mike Pompeo\u2019s unfortunate speech viz a viz Iran. Smyth examines the cultural response to the current situation among Iranian citizens and how the rulers must navigate this.<\/p>\n<p>++ Iran\u2019s Tehran Times reported Iran\u2019s Judiciary chief denouncing Trump\u2019s \u201caggressive tone and actions against the Iranian nation\u201d. Amoli Larijani \u201cpointed to the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear agreement, saying exiting an international treaty is \u2018indigestible\u2019 for every country, \u2018but the U.S. does such thing through bullying\u2019. He also pointed to the impact of Mojahedin-e\u00a0 Khalq Organization (MKO\/MEK), an anti-Iran terrorist group, on U.S. politicians, saying that with the help of the MKO the U.S. has been trying to disrupt the Iranian economy.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s new national security advisor John Bolton is in close contact with the MKO which has done numerous terrorist activities in Iran and joined Saddam Hussein\u2019s army in the fight against Iran in the 1980s.<\/p>\n<p>Amoli Larijani said the U.S. \u2018has unfortunately fallen in this wrong direction by the illusions and fantasies of [such] terrorist groups\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>++ A Conference of Iranian opposition groups and personalities will be held on 9th June in Washington. A petition to accompany the meeting says \u2018The Honorable Donald Trump, We, the undersigned, respectfully petition you not to allow the terrorist Maryam Rajavi of the Mujaheddin Khlaq (aka MEK) to enter the USA.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>++ Nejat Society: \u2018Former members of the MEK attended a conference in the EUP to discuss the legal and humanitarian situation of the refugees in Europe. It was headed by MEP Antonio Panzeri member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>++ Open Letter from the \u201cFree Iran\u201d Association to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Albania.<\/p>\n<p>++ Dr. Massoumeh Torfeh, TRT World, \u2018US failure to honour the Iran deal has dealt a blow to ordinary Iranians\u2019. \u201cDuring the nationwide protests in Iran in January, Trump\u2019s series of tweets sounded like he was calling for regime change. The US National Security Advisor, John Bolton, has also spoken about regime change unashamedly hoping the US could \u2018celebrate in Iran the toppling of the regime\u2019.\u201d MEK \u201chas hardly any support inside Iran. Most Iranians have never forgiven MKO for siding with Iraq to fight against Iran. There are in fact several hashtags against them, such as #nomojahed or #shutupPompeo.<\/p>\n<p>++ Hamid Dabashi, Aljazeera, June 06, 2018. \u201cThe next fantasy this open plot against Iran espouses is to have the discredited cult of the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) traitors do the job for the US and its Saudi-Zionist alliance. In response to this fanciful proposition, Hartung rightly says, \u201cto think that an organization that the New York Times has rightly described as a \u2018fringe dissident group\u2019 could overthrow the government\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>++ Iran Front Page News reports on Dutch media reporting: \u2018Man behind Iran\u2019s Worst Terrorist Attack Killed in 2015\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>++ Professor Bessma Momani, The Globe and Mail, \u2018Bolton, Giuliani and Pompeo have been paid by Mojahedin Khalq terrorist organisation\u2019. \u201cOnce listed as a terrorist organization by U.S. authorities, most Iranians regard the MEK as traitors aided by Iraq\u2019s Saddam Hussein in the Iraq-Iran war or, at best, a sadistic cult.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>++ Mazda Parsi in Nejat Bloggers examines \u2018Three Decades After Rajavi\u2019s Expulsion from France\u2019. The piece concludes: \u201cThe Expulsion of Maryam Rajavi from France and her relocation in Albania seems to be a very vital solution for the threat of her destructive cult that endangers European citizens too. Eventually, the MKO\u2019s camp in Albania should be supervised by the United Nations authorities in order to offer members of the group possibilities to choose for their future with their own free will.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>June 08, 2018<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As MEK members are escaping, Rajavi has tried to close Camp Ashraf Three. No visas are issued for leave. In spite of this, another person managed to run away this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[669],"tags":[180],"module":[67],"ctype":[17],"blog":[117],"class_list":["post-8341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran-interlink-weekly-digest","tag-iran-interlink","module-news","ctype-story","blog-iran-interlink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8341","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=8341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8341"},{"taxonomy":"module","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/module?post=8341"},{"taxonomy":"ctype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctype?post=8341"},{"taxonomy":"blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog?post=8341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}