An Iranian academic says delisting the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) from the list of US terror organizations by Washington is an obvious example of redefining terrorism by Washington.
“Truly known to be one of the most misinterpreted and misused words, terrorism is defined and refined by the West according to the context where it proves deleterious or beneficial to those who define the term,” Ismail Salami wrote in an article published by Press TV.
The MKO was taken off the State Department’s blacklist on September 28.
The MKO fled to Iraq in 1986, where it enjoyed the support of Iraq’s executed dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up its camp near the Iranian border.
Out of the 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist attacks since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, 12,000 of them have fallen victim to the acts of terror carried out by the MKO.
Salami added that the US State Department cited the group’s lack of involvement in terrorist acts for a decade while solid evidence suggests that they have been complicit in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists in the last few years in Iran.
Referring to the establishment of al-Qaeda by the US and CIA in the seventies in an attempt to counter the influence of the former Soviet Union, Salami said the terrorist group is “sowing seeds of blind extremism and religious sectarianism in the world.”
“This CIA-created Frankenstein’s monster has not changed for the better but has grown up monstrously,” the Iranian academic said.
Salami stated that dichotomization of ‘terrorists’ into good and bad is far uglier than any form of apartheid, though “a comparatively similar story is being repeated in Syria.”
The analyst noted that while supporting most terrorist groups in Syria, Washington has branded the Qatar-funded Al-Nusra Front as a terrorist organization because the group to a large extent flies in the face of Washington’s policies in Syria.
“Terrorism is terrorism and it cannot be defined otherwise unless the interests of one party tilt the scale in disfavor of another and the dichotomization of the terrorists in Syria into good and bad by the West casts doubt on its claim on democracy,” Salami concluded.