The Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) has acknowledged that it played a role in Sunday’s violent anti-government protests in Iran.
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| Leader of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization Maryam Rajavi |
MKO followers cooperated with the demonstrators and coordinated the protests, the organization’s leader Maryam Rajavi told AFP in Paris on Tuesday.
Rajavi also urged unity among those bent on overthrowing the Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
"It’s a call for solidarity among all those who reject the rule of the supreme leader, the Velayat e-Faqih," she told AFP in Paris.
"What we call the ‘Green movement’ against the electoral fraud quickly disappeared to be replaced by a deeper movement whose goal is the total overthrow of the regime," she claimed.
The MKO leader also predicted that the government of Iran would fall within 12 months if foreign powers remain neutral.
Her comments came after protests in Iran during Sunday’s Shia Muslim ceremonies of Ashura — the anniversary of the martyrdom of the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Imam Hussein (PBUH).
According to police reports, at least seven people were killed in clashes that broke out between security forces and protestors during the disturbances.
The MKO, listed as a terrorist group in Iran, Iraq, Canada, and the US, has claimed responsibility for numerous deadly attacks against Iranian government officials and civilians over the past 30 years.
The attacks include the assassination of the late president Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, prime minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar and judiciary chief Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti.
The MKO is also known to have cooperated with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hossein in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.
The organization is also notorious for using cult-like tactics against its own members, tactics which include torture and murder of defectors.
