How Iran Fears MEK as Its Opposition

The regime in Iran has come under immense domestic and international pressure recently. Most vivid are the sweeping sanctions imposed by US Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump.

These developments are sparking an endless stream of reactions from Iran’s senior officials and various media outlets. Over 500 interviews, reports, posts, sessions, book introductions and others events have been discussed in this regime’s official outlets, all regarding the opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

The reason behind this chorus of remarks and attacks aimed at the MEK is obvious. It is crystal clear for Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his entire regime apparatus how the MEK represent the source of all their strategic defeats.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) has recently been classified as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity. This is mainly due to the hundreds of revelations, press conferences, articles, posts and other activities by the MEK and its umbrella group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

The IRGC blacklisting is considered a strategic setback for Tehran, especially since 40% of the regime’s economy is controlled by the Guards.
The MEK also delivered major blow to Khamenei’s blueprints aimed at unifying his regime through engineering the May 19th presidential election.

 

Now is the time for the international community to open its eyes to the flagrant human rights violations, and specifically the massacre of PMOI/MEK members and supporters in 1988, and not permit this dossier to remain closed as it has for years.

A Look at Khomeini's Fatwa for PMOI/MEK Massacre

In February of this year, the Washington, D.C. office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran held press conferences to detail MEK intelligence regarding the expansion of terrorist training programs being carried out across Iran by the Revolutionary Guards. 

The growth of these programs reportedly followed upon direct orders from Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and coincided with increased recruitment of foreign nationals to fight on Tehran’s behalf in regional conflicts including the Syrian and Yemeni civil wars.

In the weeks following that press conference, the MEK’s parent organization also prepared documents and held other talks explaining the source of some of the Revolutionary Guards’ power and wealth. Notably, this series of revelations reflected upon trends in American policy toward the Islamic Republic of Iran. And other revelations continue to do so, even now.

MEK Intelligence Bolstering US Policy Shifts
Soon after taking office, and around the time the MEK identified a series of Revolutionary Guard training camps, US President Donald Trump directed the State Department to review the possibility of designating Iran’s hardline paramilitary as a foreign terrorist organization. 

Doing so would open the Revolutionary Guards up to dramatically increased sanctions – a strategy that the MEK prominently supports as a means of weakening the barriers to regime change within Iran.

The MEK enjoys vast support both inside Iran and abroad, along with an unmatched network of activists who dare to show their support for NCRI President Maryam Rajavi and her movement at every opportunity.

THE ONLY ORGANIZED OPPOSITION MEK AND REGIME CHANGE IN IRAN

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) echoed Tillerson’s view, saying, “It’s time the Iranian people had a free and open society and a functioning democracy,” effectively a call for regime change.

Just months ago Senator McCain paid a visit to Albania, where most MEK members are currently stationed after a long ordeal in Iraq. The MEK was the target of numerous attacks by Iran-backed proxy groups and the government of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki prior to their departure from Iraq in 2016.

On July 1, a major convention was held in Paris, where hundreds of political dignitaries from across the globe explicitly called for regime change in Iran and gave their support to the NCRI and MEK.

The MEK’s vast popular base was showcased as over 100,000 members of the Iranian Diaspora rushed to Paris to express their support for Maryam Rajavi, the MEK, and a free and democratic Iran.

Trump allies, including John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration, were present and voiced their support for the convention’s cause.

Iran must understand the appeasement policy has come to an end and its measures will not go unpunished. The new sanctions adopted by the US targeting the IRGC, itself heavily involved in human rights violations, are welcome and should be fully implemented.

IRAN'S CHINK IN THE ARMOR: HUMAN RIGHTS SANCTIONS

In the 1990s Iran witnessed a series of assassinations dubbed the “chain murders” led by the notorious Ministry of Intelligence. Dozens of intellectuals and dissidents, including three Christian priests, were assassinated in brutal manner.

In 1999, current President Hassan Rouhani, then Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, placed orders for the IRGC and paramilitary Bassij forces to viciously crackdown nationwide student uprisings.

Such atrocities were witnessed yet again in 2009 when the Iranian people took to the streets protesting controversial presidential results engineered by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to have Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reach a second term.

Following Ahmadinejad to the presidency, the smiling Rouhani – naively described by the West’s pro-engagement camp as a moderate – registered a tally of over 3,000 executions during his first term.

And by taking advantage of the 2017 presidential election season to accuse the mullahs’ establishment of hinging their rule on executions and detentions, the months of 2017 and after his re-selection to a second term have been tainted with further human rights violations, as explained above.

Mr. Alavi also highlights the wrong policy of the EU towards the human rights issue at these particular days, while the US attention has focused on this topic.

The Iranian Human Rights Organization announced that the Iranian authorities executed over one hundred people during the month of July. (File photo: Reuters)

Struan Stevenson
Struan Stevenson is president of the European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA). He was a member of the European Parliament representing Scotland (1999-2014)

In Iran, political prisoners are sentenced to hang with some frequency, usually on the basis of vague, religious charges like “enmity against God” or “insulting the sacred.”

Repressive, theocratic regime
Executions speak to the repressive nature of the theocratic regime, which has only grown worse in the era of Rouhani, when the government is fractured between two factions, neither of which represents reform.

 Maryam Rajavi, the president of the leading coalition of Iranian dissidents, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, responded to the new death penalty figures by saying, “Beset by crises and fearing popular uprisings, Iran’s ruling theocracy has found no other way out but to escalate repression especially by mass and arbitrary executions.”

“Full implementation of these sanctions against the Iranian regime must be completed with urgent actions against officials in charge of executions, torture and particularly the massacre of political prisoners in 1988. Topping the list is Ali Khamenei, the mullahs’ supreme leader.” Said Maryam Rajavi in another message.

With adoption of the new bill the time has come to hold the mullah’s regime accountable for crimes against humanity.

Given the articles of the new bill about violation of human rights, and based on the actions of Iranian authorities in the past 4 decades, all the Iranian officials must be sanctioned.One case in point is the massacre of MEK* members and other political prisoners which all of Iranian officials were involved.

 In 1988, the Iranian regime massacred more than 30,000 political prisoners, most of whom were members and supporters of the main opposition group, the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK). All the current and previous officials of the regime were directly involved in the massacre. 

Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iranian regime issued a religious decree ordering the massacre. His intention was to purge the country of any opposition, notably the MEK. Khomeini's decree set up a committee of four men which were tasked with vetting the ideological standing of prisoners. Many prisoners were only questioned for a few minutes by the committee. 

Those refusing to renounce their affiliation with the MEK were sent to the gallows.“Whoever at any stage continues to belong to the MEK must be executed. Annihilate the enemies of Islam immediately!…Those who are in prisons throughout the country and remain steadfast in their support for the MEK are waging war on God, and are condemned to execution … It is naive to show mercy to those who wage war on God,” reads part of the decree.For more than three decades, Iran ignored the slaughter, until this year in the presidential election when Ebrahim Raisie one of the perpetrators of the massacre and a member of death committee, was selected as one of the main candidates.

 MEK supporters inside Iran carried out widespread campaigns revealing Raisie and his role in the massacre. Immediately, the issue of massacre of MEK members surfaced, forcing regime officials, one after another, to confess to the bloodbath.“Regarding MEK and all the militant groups, the ruling is the death sentence … Imam (Khomeini) has said this … their verdict is death sentence …” Ali Fallahian, the former Iranian intelligence Minister, confessed in an interview.

The PMOI/MEK enjoys broad popularity in Iran because of its longstanding support for democracy and its modern interpretation of Islam. The MEK/PMOI believe Islam is inherently tolerant and democratic, thus fully compatible with the values of modern-day civilization. This vision is in fact the cure to the growing expansion of Islamic extremism funded and supported by the mullahs in Iran.

MEK'S POPULARITY AMONG IRANIAN YOUTH, REGIME'S NIGHTMARE

The MEK/PMOI participated in a united front against the Pahlavi monarchy, which violently opposed democratic reforms and had one of the worst human rights records in the world.

 After the Shah fled Iran, the MEK/PMOI worked to establish a democratic government, but Ayatollah Khomeini hijacked the Revolution and instead created an Islamic theocracy.

The MEK/PMOI shifted course and directed its opposition against the Ayatollah, continuing its struggle to restore democracy in Iran. In June 1980, the PMOI/MEK organized a rally in Tehran to protest Khomeini’s escalating despotism. More than 200,000 people participated in the demonstration.

With each passing day, the PMOI/MEK gained strength and, in July 1980, Khomeini openly considered the possibility of defeat, stating, “Never have I so much feared the Islamic Revolution end in failure.” He lashed out at the PMOI/MEK, declaring the resistance organization as the main enemy. Khomeini said, “Our enemy is neither the United States, nor the Soviet Union, nor Kurdistan, but sitting right here in Tehran under our nose [the PMOI/MEK].”

Revolutionary Guards escalated their attacks on the PMOI/MEK, which continued to promote its pro-democracy campaign. The turning point came on June 20, 1981. The MEK/PMOI organized rallies across Iran to protest Khomeini’s oppressive rule. More than a half million Iranians attended the demonstration in Tehran.