The US secretary of State Mike Pompeo\u2019s speech on his administration\u2019s foreign policy towards Iran at Reagan Library seems to be another sign of determination of the US administration to topple the Iranian government. His speech might have cheered up the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO\/ MEK\/ PMOI\/ the Cult of Rajavi) more than anyone else because Pompeo\u2019s words were was just as aggressive as the speeches the MKO\u2019s American advocates made in the group\u2019s annual gathering\u00a0 earlier this his month in Paris.<\/p>\n
However, the essence of Pompeo\u2019s speech should be analyzed to conclude to what extent, if any at all, benefits the MKO. There is a big doubt that it benefits them at all.<\/p>\n
The retired Foreign Service Officer John Limbert asserts Pompeo\u2019s speech in California on Sunday night \u201creveals some basic facts about the administration\u2019s approach to Iran\u201d but it does not indicate what the administration wants beyond the end of the Islamic Republic. \u201cIt knows what it does not want,\u201d writes Limbert. \u201cIt has no idea what it does want.\u201d [1]<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has no coherent message on Iran,\u201d he adds. \u201cOn the one hand, Pompeo says that people in Iran should have the same freedoms that Iranian-Americans enjoy. On the other hand, President Trump, in his midnight tweet, threatens to annihilate millions of them.\u201d [2]<\/p>\n
Ali Vaez, the director of Iran Project at the International Crisis Group (ICG), says Pompeo\u2019s outreach effort is \u201can exercise in futility.\u201d [3]<\/p>\n
\u201cIranian opposition in exile is too fractured, too disconnected from the country’s realities, and basically beyond repair. Any alternative to the Islamic republic should be homegrown, not engineered in the Golden State (California),\u201d Vaez said in an e-mail to RFE\/RL. [4]<\/p>\n
Limbert points out the MKO as the alternative that the US administration may think of. He recounts the reality of the MKO and the ambiguity of the group and its advocates in the US administration. He confirms the hypocrisy of the MKO as an anti-American political group that has turned out to be the ally of the US President\u2019s security advisor John Bolton and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Limbert initiates his argument with a very famous Persianslogan of the MKO:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe angry Mojahed lies in ambush in the alley,<\/p>\n
American, come out. Your blood will flow on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThus sang the militants of the Iranian opposition group MEK(Mojahedin-e-Khalq) to a catchy Kurdish folk tune,\u201d he describes the MKO\u2019s true face. \u201cNow the same group\u2014rebranding itself as democratic and pluralistic\u2014presents itself as the best alternative to the current reactionary theocracy. In so doing, it has purchased support from Americans on both left and right, including the current national security advisor, the president\u2019s personal attorney, and the former speaker of the House of Representatives.\u201d [5]<\/p>\n
He suggests that the overthrow of the Islamic Republic will leave Trump\u2019s administration in bewilderment and those who advocate the Mujahedin will be left with a notorious group which is not desired in Iran. \u201cJohn Bolton and his friends, would end up backing the above-noted MEK, a group hated by most Iranians and resembling a combination of the Jonestown cult and the Khmer Rouge,\u201d he writes. [6]<\/p>\n
Limbert approves that Pompeo and his partners do not know enough about the realities of the Iranian society. \u201cI keep wondering who is feeding him this information,\u201d Limbert told the NPR of Pompeo\u2019s remarks. \u201cIt\u2019s clear from his speech that he understands nothing about the internal dynamics of the country.\u201d [7]<\/p>\n
Pual Pillar of Lobelog has a good response to the question. He states that the US administration has resorted to the policy as a last resort to a terrorist group that in its long list of victims even there are American citizens,\u00a0\u00a0 in his meager policies.\u00a0 \u201cEven if the regime in Iran were to change significantly in the next couple of years, that leaves the question of the direction of change,\u201d he writes. \u201cThe bankruptcy of the administration\u2019s thinking on this subject is underscored by the role that the cult-cum-terrorist-group known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (or MEK)\u2014which was invited to Pompeo\u2019s speech\u2014plays in that thinking. The MEK has American blood on its hands, and it lost almost all support it once had in Iran when it became an auxiliary to Saddam Hussein\u2019s security apparatus during the Iran-Iraq War. Trump\u2019s national security adviser, John Bolton, and his lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, are among those close to the president who have sung the praises of the MEK in exchange for fat speaking fees.\u201d [8]<\/p>\n
By\u00a0 Mazda Parsi<\/p>\n
References:<\/p>\n
[1] Limbert, John, Pompeo and Iran: A Bizarre Mentality, Lobelog, July 24th, 2018<\/p>\n
[2] ibid<\/p>\n
[3]Esfandiari, Golnaz, Pompeo Reaches Out To Iranian-Americans Amid Hard-Line On Iran, Radio Farda, July 20th, 2018<\/p>\n
[4] ibid<\/p>\n
[5] Limbert, John, Pompeo and Iran: A Bizarre Mentality, Lobelog, July 24th, 2018<\/p>\n
[6] ibid<\/p>\n
[7] Kelemen, Michele; Leff ,Alex Trump Administration\u2019s Support For Iran Protests May Backfire, Experts Warn, NPR, July 28th, 2018<\/p>\n
[8] Pillar, Paul R., The Ugly Destination of Trump\u2019s Iran Policy, lobelog, July 23rd, 2018<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The US secretary of State Mike Pompeo\u2019s speech on his administration\u2019s foreign policy towards Iran at Reagan Library seems to be another sign of determination of the US administration to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[79,178],"module":[81],"ctype":[17],"blog":[3],"class_list":["post-8580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mujahedin-khalq-proxy-force","tag-mujahedin-khalq-declining","tag-pmoi-iran-people","module-article","ctype-story","blog-nejat-bloggers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8580","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=8580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8580"},{"taxonomy":"module","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/module?post=8580"},{"taxonomy":"ctype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctype?post=8580"},{"taxonomy":"blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog?post=8580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}