Michael Rubin, the American journalist and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he specializes in Iran, Turkey, and the broader Middle East, has so far authored several articles to denounce the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK/ PMOI) as a terrorist group warning the US former politicians who are paid by the group to advocate it. On February 28th, 2023, Rubin published an article on the MEK clarifying “why can’t Mujahedin-e-Khalq supporters get security clearances”?
As the MEK is based in Albania, the Albanian citizens are widely concerned about the group’s presence in their territory. This is the analysis written by an Albanian journalist on Rubin’s most recent article on the MEK’s terrorist and cult-like record:
I am sure that some individuals in the Albanian government (Including the Police and the security service) have studied the article. However, the words of Prime Minister Edi Rama in Higgins article published by the New York Times, are evidence on hypocrisy of his state regarding the MEK’s presence in Albania.
According to the New York times, the Prime Minister complained that the MEK were “not easy people, frankly,” and that the group had violated an agreement that it would refrain from using Albania as “a safe haven to launch political activity against the Iranian regime.”
This is absolute hypocrisy because the MEK is constantly hosting foreign authorities who support regime change in Iran. The visit between two British MPs, David Jones and Bob Blackman with Maryam Rajavi, at Camp Ashraf 3 is the most recent example.
The MEK is still hiring people paying them to launch violent acts against Iranian interests. The group’s propaganda machine and its clandestine network in social media encourages attacking Iranian police forces with knives and hand-made bombs.
Furthermore, the MEK uses Albanian territory to launch cyber attacks against Iranian government. I do not want to explain how the group uses my homeland to offer substantial services to foreign teams in order to operate in Iran attacking its military facilities with drones, killing high-profile officials and providing intelligence for foreign intelligence agencies.
However, I seriously believe that Michael Rubin’s recent piece is a turning point in American policy and consequently in Albanian policy compared with the current policies of Saudi Arabia and Israel towards Iran.