MeK-Paid Officials Blast Deal as ‘Appeasement’
The Mujahedin-e Khalq has been called a lot of things over the years: terrorists, a cult, even (by themselves) a “government-in-exile.” One thing that is undeniable at this point is that they wield considerable influence among US officials past and present, and that lobbying heft is being thrown behind stopping the Iran nuclear deal.
Former Governor Howard Dean (D – VT), a major MeK enthusiast, was among the speech-givers at a recent sponsored “briefing” that condemned the deal, saying any deal must be conditioned on imposing some sort of deal on Iraq to deal with MeK exiles there. Former US Special Envoy Robert Joseph concurred, and blasted the current deal as “appeasement.”
The MeK is putting a lot of effort behind the same Senate sanctions bill that the Israel Lobby is so staunchly behind. The bill would violate the Iran deal by imposing new sanctions, and would effectively kill negotiations.
While the depth of the MeK’s funding of this is, like much of their lobbying, strictly off-the-record (Gov. Dean openly refused to answer questions about how much he was paid for his statement), the group appears to still envision itself being the benefactors of US-imposed regime change in Iran, and is willing to pull out all the stops to see to it that diplomacy does not succeed and rapprochement remains impossible.
By : Jason Ditz
