The war on terror seems to be a tactical expression to rationalize the colonial intrusions of the US throughout the world. When in 2003, the Bush administration sought to justify its invasion on Iraq; they accused Saddam Hussein of sponsoring of international terrorism.
The big change in US approach towards terrorism of the very MKO indicates that for the US government, there’s no right or wrong, or legal or illegal, there’s just one question ‘are you with the US or against US?’
The US is clearly stating that if you disagree with us you deserve to be called “terrorist” or “state sponsor of terrorism”. This way, Obama administration makes one of its most risky decisions to antagonize the Iranians.
Now that the US has delisted an international terror group the MKO, there is no legal restriction to fund, arm and train it for insurgency operations against Iran.
Richard Silverstein writes on Guardian:”the delisting of the group is a sham. The Obama administration isn’t even claiming the MEK has renounced terrorism. If it did, it knows that it’s likely such a statement would rebound should the MEK’s activities become exposed.” He concludes that the MKO is useful in the covert war the US and Israel are waging against Iran’s nuclear program. [1]
What is confusing is that the US administration pretends to be engaging in negotiation but on the other hand their approach towards Islamic Republic is far from diplomacy.
Coleen Rowley of the Antiwar website describes the recent act of double standard by the US government as a “movie” that was seen before. He refers to previous CIA’s covert assistance to Mujahedin rebels in Afghanistan — who were recruited and trained by Osama Bin Laden- against Soviet Union.[2]
Using indirect aggression is nothing new in US foreign policy. Using drones and insurgency groups in Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen and the MKO in Iran are far more evidences of American ambivalence towards terrorism.
In his piece on the Guardian, Chris McGreal warns that since then the MKO’s multi-million campaign and supporters of People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) are to press the Obama Administration to recognize it as the “legitimate opposition” to the Iranian government after the group is removed from the list of banned terrorist organizations in the coming days,” he writes.[3]
US politicians should know that legitimacy come from people. The MKO’s well funded lobbying campaign has spent too much to change its image from a violent cult of personality to a pro-democratic opposition movement. They may have been successful to manipulate western politicians but they do not represent Iranian people. Only the Iranians are qualified to give them the legitimacy they fail to have. Reza Marashi a former official of the State Department’s Iran Desk who is now a member of National Iranian American Council (NIAC) told McGreal:”The majority in the country know that these guys fought with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war and they view them as traitors. During my time in Iran, and I’m still hearing this from people who are on the ground in Iran, there’s little to no support.”[4]
The delisting of the MKO, with its long history of bombings, murders, treason cult-like practices and human rights abuses might have destructive impacts. Lajos Szasdi, an international affairs analyst who was interviewed by RT , explains the inevitable results of such a decision: ”It is going to in any case, work to the detriment of the relationship between the West and Iran, and in particular the United States. It is going to favor taking hardening positions towards the West and the United States. I think it is quite inevitable in light of the rhetoric coming from Washington, alongside that coming from Tel Aviv regarding Iran and the Iranian nuclear program. It might not make much difference, but it certainly is going to be ammunition for those who would try to suppress the idea of any dialogue with Washington, because after all ,Washington is not offering any olive branch for such kind of dialogue”.[5]
As a matter of fact, one thing is for sure. The US –Israeli lobbies are entirely misled if they want to preserve the MKO as a viable alternative to the government in Tehran. They will never be able to advance this goal as millions of Iranians never remove the MKO from the list of terrorist cultist traitors they have maintained in their historical memory.
They never want the democracy which is brought by a bunch of power-thirsty traitors who murdered their own countrymen to obey their paymasters such as Saddam Hussein or Netanyahu.
By Mazda Parsi
References:
[1]Silverstein, Richard, Terror delisting the MEK is a cynical sham, the guardian, September22, 2012
[2]Rowley, Coleen, Our (New) Terrorists’ the MEK: Have We Seen This Movie Before? , Antiwar.com.September28, 2012
[3]McGreal, Chris, MEK supporters push for recognition by US as official Iranian opposition, the Guardian, September28,2012
[4]ibid
[5]RT.co, lobbying campaign takes Iranian dissident group off US terror list, September 29, 2012