A very essential question in any discussion and argument about the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO, MEK, PMOI, Cult of Rajavi) has always been about its financial resources. Based on various investigative reports, interviews, testimonies and documents, the question can have a variety of answers based on the timing.
For most, the simplest answer is Saddam Hussein. The answer is quite acceptable. The financial and logistical support that former Iraqi dictator granted to MEK was nothing secret. The group was actually Saddam’s private army during the Iran-Iraq war and the suppression of Iraqi people’s uprisings after the war.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein a video revealed MEK agents receiving boxes of dollars from Iraqi intelligence officers. However, this does not seem to be enough to run a cult of a few thousand rank and files, bribing Western politicians with big sums of speaking fees and funding western far right parties to win the election.
Investigating former members’ testimonies and arguments made by experts, you will reach to a common answer that includes Saudi Arabia as the main sponsor of MEK. Massoud Khodabendeh, a former high-ranking MEK official confirmed long-held suspicions that Saudi Arabia has been financing the MEK since Saddam’s era. In an interview with Jordanian news outlet Al-Bawaba in December 2018, he asserted that he oversaw the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of materials including gold and Rolex watches. [1]
Massoud Khodabandeh explained that 3 tons of solid gold, a minimum of four suitcases of customized Rolex watches and fabric that had been used to cover the Muslim holy site of Kaaba in Mecca were among the commodities shipped from Saudi Arabia to MEK operatives in Baghdad. From there, the valuables would be sold on the black market in Jordan’s capital, Amman, to Saudi-aligned merchants. [2]
This was confirmed by the well-known historian Ervand IAbrahamian, a professor at the City University of New York and author of the definitive academic work on the group’s history, “The Iranian Mojahedin”.”The money definitely comes from Saudis,”he told Aron Merat of the Guardian.”There is no one else who could be subsidising them with this level of finance.”[3]
Mark Dankoff, radio broadcaster, journalist and former Senate candidate also revealed the MEK’s notorious alliance with the enemies of Iran in an interview with Tasnim news agency.”The New York Times has extensively covered the Neo-Conservative, Zionist politicians who have been on the MEK payroll, and who helped remove them from the American State Department list of Officially Designated Terrorist Organizations,”he said.”The money of the MEK is traceable to Saudi Arabia, and Israeli players in this New Great Game.”[4]
Not surprisingly, the MEK enjoys operational support by the side of the most operative enemy of Islamic Republic in the region, Israel. Connie Brock of The New Yorker writes,”Israel had a relationship with the M.E.K at least since the late nineties, and had supplied a satellite signal for N.C.R.I. broadcasts from Paris into Iran. An Israeli diplomat said:”The M.E.K is useful,”but did not elaborate.”According to the same report, the Israelis provided the MEK with unsubstantiated intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program. [5]
Luisa Hommerich of Spiegel Online, wrote,”Security experts believe that the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Israel also provide the group with financial support, but there is no proof for that supposition.”[6]
Given that we ignore all the above-mentioned evidences and accept that there may be no proof, the reason is clear: money laundering is taking place in a complicated network coordinated by the sponsors and the MEK agents all over the world. In April 2019, the Spanish Newspaper, El Pais reported that the Spain’s far-right Vox received funds from mujahedin Khalq.
Documents leaked to El Pais revealed that between its founding in December 2013 and the European Parliament elections in May 2014, Vox received almost a million euros from the MEK’s front group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). It was not as though the financial relationship between Vox and the NCRI began gradually, but right when Vox was founded. Joaquín Gil, a journalist with El Pais, explained:”From the day it was founded in December 2013—the same day that it registered as a political party with the Spanish Ministry of Interior—Vox started to receive Iranian funds”. These funds came from different countries including the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and Italy in amounts ranging from 60 to 35,000 euros, totaling almost 972,000 euros, from December 2013 to April 2014, right before the 2014 elections. According to Gill, Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca, former EP president and MEK’s longtime advocate, who was a leading member of Vox,”asked his friends at NCRI … to instruct its followers to make a series of money transfers.”[7]
Actually, for the adversaries of Iranians, traitors are potentially the most reliable people to invest on. Their treasonous attitude finds no boundaries. They are always ready to sell themselves to anyone who pays them.
Mazda Parsi
Refrences:
[1] Joplin, Ty, Inside the MEK: The Secluded Group Scheduled to Overthrow the Iranian Regime, Abawaba, July 31st, 2018.
[2] ibid
[3] Merrat, Aron,Terrorists, cultists – or champions of Iranian democracy? The wild wild story of the MEK, The Guardian, November 9th, 2018.
[4] Tasnim, US Favors ‘Regime Change’ Not Diplomacy with Iran: Ex-US Senate Candidate, December 4th, 2019.
[5] Sepahpour-Ulrich, Soraya, Washington’s Infatuation with Iran’s Mujahedin-e Khalq (M.E.K) Terrorist Organization, Global Research, June 30th, 2019.
[6] Hommerich, Luisa, The Cult-Like Group Fighting Iran, Speigel Online, Februray 18th, 2019.
[7] Jannessari, Sohail, & Loucaides, Darren, Spain’s Vox Party Hates Muslims—Except the Ones Who Fund It, April 27th, 2019.