The black tunnel – A U turn toward being a political organization
The Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) believes that keeping the name of this
organization in the list of terrorist organizations is a direct result of a plot between the Iranian regime and European countries. They believe that this ‘black tunnel’ has been created by the Iranian regime and that the organization has no other choice except to follow it to the end in order to come out the other side.
“… The policy of appeasement up to now has given time to the mullahs to proceed with their plans to produce atomic bombs. Of course an external war is not the answer. So could we say that we are stuck in a black tunnel created by the mullahs’ regime? …"
Informed political sources know so well that the MKO has devoted all its resources in the past five years in concentrating on coming of the lists of terrorism; and of course with no success to date.
Now the question is, considering the past five years of activities of the organization would they carry out military attacks against Iran if they have the chance to carry out such attacks successfully? The answer is no. Today’s MKO has reached a point where even if it had the opportunity to carry out successful military actions in Iran, it would not do so. Because any military action by the MKO will damage severely the picture they have tried to portray of themselves over the past seven years in order to get refuge and continue their existence as a political organization in Europe and, although they have not reached this goal yet, we should remember that after Iraq and the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein, Europe is all that is left for the Mojahedin and this is why they would never carry out any military operations inside Iran at least in the short term.
Of course, this is not to say that the Mojahedin have rejected their original ideas as they try to pretend by signing secretly kept papers behind the closed doors of a court. The realities of today’s world as the MKO put it themselves and blame the Iranians for it is the ‘dark tunnel’ which is forcing the Mojahedin Khalq to change itself from a military to a political organisation.
The future of the MKO will be decided accordingly and the era of the Mojahedin’s military operations inside Iran has apparently come to an end unless the situation in Iraq and in Europe becomes so hard for them that they could no longer follow their aims using peaceful means like gatherings, meetings, etc. In that case they will go back to their original military activities. This is highly unlikely as the European political decision makers do not have this in their minds and, on the contrary, have decided to push the organisation toward using non-violent means.
One should welcome the transformation of an organisation from a military to a political entity. As the former Chancellor of Austria said once, "The hardest day for a rebellious warrior is the day that they take his arms from him and ask him to come to the negotiation table and talk, and he has nothing to say".
It may be that history has left no other way for the Mojahedin except to following the path of the Irish Republican Army. The MKO knows only so well what path they are now on, but do not like to talk about it. They know that they will not be able to answer the hundreds of their members in Iraq. It is better for them to pretend that they have been brought to this path forcefully and they never wanted that. It is of course more interesting when they claim that this is being done by the Iranian regime and not by western strategists. Nevertheless, the creators of this strategy should be congratulated if the outcome of this is the change of a military organisation into a political entity.
The activities of the MKO to be removed from the lists of terrorist groups is the first step towards getting out of the dammed black tunnel which has turned the days of the Mojahedin as dark as nights. By following this strategy is seems that:
1- MKO will find a new legal identity in Europe and this is the time when one can confront a legally recognisable, accountable body which can be brought to justice and can be expected to take responsibility for what it has done in the last quarter century.
2- Many of those captured in Ashraf Camp will have the opportunity to be accepted somewhere in European countries and therefore have more chance of separating from the organisation and, with the existing guarantees by human rights organisations such as the Red Cross, one can expect that with emphasis on their right to think independently and choose independently, they will be able to choose their path for a better future without being forced to return from Iraq to Iran.
3- Above all, by coming off the lists of terrorist organisations, the MKO will become a political organisation and with the change of the head of the organisation one can hope that they would move towards normality and distance themselves from cult culture and cultish practices.
