The Mojahedin-e Khalq group is a terrorist group that after its formation assassinated 6 American advisors in Tehran during the time of the Shah the puppet of America, and with the victory of the revolution when the people did not vote for them in the elections, they started to take revenge on the people, which in a short period 12 thousand people were butchered in the worst possible way by this terrorist group, that even among the dead, the bodies of many women and children can be seen. At the beginning of the war, the MEK first tried to start a civil war in Iran and assassinated the main officials of the Islamic Revolution, but when they saw that they could not succeed, they joined Saddam to attack their country with the help of Iraqi Baath forces, that many innocent people were killed. After the end of the Iran-Iraq war, this terrorist group carried out the Forough Javidan operation with the cooperation of the Iraqi Baath army on the western borders of Iran, which faced a heavy defeat of its forces against the Iranian army in the Mersad operation and was forced to retreat to their camp in Iraq. After the end of the war, Saddam, who was aware of the bloodthirsty nature of this terrorist group, ordered them to attack Iraqi Kurds, in this operation, 4 thousand Kurdish men and women were killed. They did so many assassinations that the US Department of State put the name of this group on the Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) in 1997. Continuing to understand the terrorist nature of the MEK, we are with Mr. Daniele Perra, an Italian journalist who provides valuable information about this terrorist group.
MEK on the FTO list
In your opinion, what is the goal of the opponents of the Islamic Republic of Iran to fully support a terrorist group of the Mujahedin-e Khalq that has almost no credible popular base in its own country? What role exactly does this group play among the opponents of the Iranian government?
The goal is actually pretty clear. MeK is western favorite tool for the destabilization of the Islamic Republic. I will provide you an example. In 2014, the Israeli website of strategy and geopolitics MiDA has published an interesting article with the title “How to Hurt Iran, Even Without Airstrikes”. The author of the article recognized that Iran is Israel’s main adversary in the Middle East region and, in order to hit back Iran for its support of the Palestinian resistance, he says that Israel should exploit terrorists groups and the presence of ethnic and religious minorities inside the Iranian borders to dismantle progressively the country. Furthermore, the article name many groups that can be used for this purpose. Among them there are MeK (in the article it is clearly written that Mossad has financed, trained and armed MeK for killing Iranian officials and nuclear scientists), Jundallah (a group that operates between Iran and Pakistan) and some other kurdish groups. In this contest of low intensity war MeK has a special role because has proved to be quite effective since the Iraq-Iran war with its capacity to operate inside Iranian borders.
Regarding the terrorist background of the MEK group and the group’s attempt to hold an annual gathering in Albania and France, what do you think is the reason for the cooperation of some Western governments with this group?
Western governments dislike Iran for the simple reason that the Islamic Republic represents an alternative to their failing political model based on ultraliberal capitalism, exploitation and annihilation of men. A System that has been able to produce inequalities inside and outside the so called West and, at the same time, to destroy the environment. A system that completely forgets tradition and cancels culture and history in order to eradicate human beings from their roots. The Islamic Revolution has stopped the process of “westernization” of Iran. That is the reason why the West dislikes Iran nowadays. That is the reason why the West supports this kind of terrorists groups. They want a government in Tehran that follows orders. They cannot bear the fact that Iran is still a sovereign country even after 40 years of hybrid war against it.
As you know the MEK invited so many Ex-politicians to their annual gathering, these politicians have no position in their countries and they have no hope to be in a political position in the future, what is the main purpose of these figures attending the ceremonies of a terrorist group?
I do not actually agree about the fact that these politicians have no hope to be in a political position in the future. For instance, there is a huge possibility that the former Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Giulio Terzi (probably the greatest supporter of MeK in Italy) will have a position in the italian government after the election in 2023. In fact, he is in a very good relationship with right wing Party Fratelli d’Italia which seems to be the favorite by the polls. The leader of this party, Giorgia Meloni, not surprisingly, is linked with the Spanish far right Party Vox which was involved in a scandal about receiving money from MeK. The former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has recently met Maryam Rajavi in Albania. Even in this case, Pompeo has the possibility to take part in the primary elections to become the Republican candidate for the White House, or maybe to become again member of another Trump’s administration after 2024 presidential elections. Furthermore we should not underestimate the fact that Trump’s administration was very close to MeK as well. For example, Trump’s lawyer Rudolph Giuliani is a close friend of the terrorist organization.
A few months ago, the group of MEK organized a virtual anti-Iranian conference with the invitation of several members of the Italian parliament to spread hatred against Iran. What do you think are the reasons for the cooperation of these Italian politicians with this terrorist group?
You must consider the fact that Italian politicians are not independent. They have owners (foreign countries such as USA, UK, Israel and so on, or some multinational corporations). If they do not have owners they look for them in order to have guaranteed incomes. Italian politics is the triumph of immorality. In this regard, taking part in this kind of events it helps them to show themselves, to show that they are ready to be bought from the transatlantic élite or, for the ones that already have owners, to show them that they are following the orders.
One of the main slogans of the terrorist group of MEK is “Free and Democratic Iran”. In your opinion, what does this slogan have to do with the nature of this group and the way its leaders treat their members?
It sounds quite ridiculous because we know that this group nowadays works more like a pseudo-religious cult. There is no democracy at all in it. Pompeo, during his visit, even called Rajavi as “elected president of Iran”. Even more ridiculous, but it is at same time quite scary. So, we should ask another question. Is the West willing to ignore the involvement of MeK in drug and human trafficking, and even the killing of American soldiers in the first years of the Iraq war, in order to reach its geopolitical goals? The answer is yes since it has done it before, for example in Kosovo with the UCK.
As an Italian journalist, have you ever witnessed Maryam Rajavi attend a debate or challenging discussion? In your opinion, what is the reason for Maryam Rajavi to be afraid and avoid confronting challenging questions about the group of MEK?
Honestly I have not. But, if we are talking about western media, we have to take into consideration another thing. There is no risk for Maryan Rajavi to be questioned about the activities of MeK since this is not in the agenda of the western media, which are not independent again. We can apply for western journalists the same thing that we said before about western politicians. They have owners or they look for owners. Let’s keep into consideration that many of them have been trained by organizations well linked with American intelligence such as Stratfor Enterprise (the so called “Shadow CIA”). As long as MeK will keep working as a western proxy inside and outside Iran, its role in criminal and terrorist activities will never be questioned by the main media groups in the West.
Every year, the MEK name the year “Sin” which means to overthrow, but now, 40 years after the revolution Iran is standing stronger, after these many years and having lost so many members by death and separation what justification do the leaders of MEK have for their old members?
Well, the main justification can be the fact that nowadays MeK, after the removal from the list of terrorist groups, has been able to create links, penetrate the western political structure and make lobbying inside of it. Let’s be clear, MeK has no possibility to overthrow the Islamic Republic, or to govern Iran in the near future as Pompeo kind of predicted. However, it can still play the role that western intelligence agencies gave to it. Plus, as long as Rajavi receives funds from the West she can still buy some obedience.
Since the MEK has once again shown their true face and publicly propagated their armed policy, such as the Birmingham voting incident, the fifth founders, etc., would the Western countries take action to put them again on the terrorist list?
I do not think so. At the moment MeK is still an important asset especially for Israel and USA. But we never know. The West, and especially USA, has a long tradition in betraying its allies. In fact, Henry Kissinger used to say that America does not have allies but only interests. So, in the future, when MeK will not be anymore useful for the geopolitical interests of the West, probably, it will be put again in that list.
By Jack Turner , Geopolitika.ru