Almost a week has elapsed since Janez Jansha, the Slovenian Prime Minister chairing the EU rotating presidency, addressed an online gathering organized by the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) terrorist group.
In his speech on July 10, Jansha broke all diplomatic rules and attended a terrorist group conference disregarding his official position. In addition to making statements against the Iranian government and intervening in its internal affairs, he supported the MEK which used to be on multiple terror group lists for a long time.
Hours later, the Slovenian ambassador was summoned to the foreign ministry of Iran. Next, in a talk with Joseph Borell, Mohammad Javad Zarif voiced his objection to Slovenia’s act. Borell told Zarif that Slovenia’s action did not reflect the EU’s official position.
The MEK took advantage of all these reactions and called Jansha a brave Prime Minister. However, in Slovenia, Prime Minister faced harsh criticism in the media where he was warned of the consequences of his action, especially regarding Iran-Slovenia relations.
Delo berates Janša over Iran comments
According to the Slovenian newspaper Delo, the Prime Minister’s participation in the MEK gathering was without the knowledge of the president and the foreign minister calling it an arbitrary decision. This newspaper also expressed its concerns regarding how this act might jeopardize the economic transactions and relations of the two countries. It also added, “severity of Europe’s reactions to this incident shows how dangerous this matter could be. Slovenia has turned into a disruptive factor in EU’s policies.”
It seems highly likely that the Slovenian PM received a large sum of money for his several-minute speech. According to international reports published by American investigative journalists, the MEK pays its foreign guests, depending on their ranks, an average of thirty thousand dollars for a short speech. Of course, this amount is much more for A-listers. If we take into account the PM’s financial corruption and his two-year sentenced to prison in 2013, it should not be surprising that Jansha received an exorbitant amount to speak at the gathering.
This tactless act i.e., supporting a terrorist cult, damaged Slovenia’s reputation severely both at the international level and in the eyes of Iranian citizens because more than sixty percent of Iranian terror victims have been murdered by the MEK terrorist cult. Unless this mistake is fixed, it appears that future interactions between the two countries will be challenging.
The MEK held the conference before the eyes of the European officials in Albania showing how a terrorist cult could incur heavy costs to relations of the countries. Slovenia is an example of a country that got involved in the game of a terrorist group and acted irrationally and unconventionally just like their Albanian counterparts who entered this game long before by lining up their former officials to deliver speeches and support this terrorist group.
The new president will take office in Iran in the beginning of August and it is important that there be good relations between Iran and the European Union away from and not affected by disruptive factors. The MEK proved that its actions aim to break off such bilateral relations. They are costly terrorists for Europe.
By Reza Alqurabi