Besides, American hawks such as Rudy Giuliani – Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and former New York mayor- a number of other former US officials, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and those rented crowd from all over Europe, seemingly there were some luminaries who were not duped by the luxurious well-organized event.
Anwar Abdulrahman, a renowned publisher, journalist and expert in politics and history had been invited to the so-called Free Iran gathering of the MKO. However, his presence at the meeting was not as a supporter for the group but as an eyewitness for the shallowness of the event.
In an article he posted on Bahrain News, he confirms that the high profile invitees are definitely paid for all the expenses of their trip to Paris.
“We all know that such personalities never pay a penny from their own pockets, but are invited, hosted and ticketed,” Abdulrahman asserts. “Every single word they uttered had also been paid for well in advance. Because to them, such an occasion was a retirement outing!” And not only himself but everyone in the gathering was asking “Who Financed it?”.
The Villepinte show was previously denounced by the guardian report as a weekend trip for “groups of bored-looking Poles, Czechs, Slovakians, Germans and Syrians” who “responded to a Facebook campaign promising travel, food and accommodation to Paris for a mere €25” and did not Know anything about the MKO. However, as a scholar and expert and a critic of the Iranian government, Abdulrahman knew the MKO and viewed the gathering with his critical thinking:
“Speeches were inflammatory, but without any speck of substance. Threats and warnings, but no pragmatic solutions. In fact they were almost convincing themselves that the Iran regime would collapse during the conference!”
Pointing to the MKO leader’s unawareness about the realities of the Iranian society, he notifies that the Iranian nation even those who have recently protested against the Islamic Republic, “had never mentioned the MEK as their representative”.
The superficiality of the lavishly organized MKO rally is voiced in a comment that Abdulrahman heard from a western participant: “What a political acrobatic circus!”
“After three hours I left in frustration at listening to a barrage of empty rhetoric and hollow words”, he writes. “Two of their leading men noticed my departure, and the very next day rang me to arrange a meeting to explain their thoughts. This took place in my hotel over more than two-and-a-half hours.”
This is his account of discussing with the MKO agents in the hotel:
“I initially asked one important question. Where is Masood Rajavi (founder of the MEK)? Is he dead or alive? I had deliberately asked this to test their honesty and plausibility.
The shocking answer was “he is alive, but cannot appear in public because of assassination threats”.
We all know that after the invasion of Baghdad, Masood Rajavi disappeared. Since then no one has seen or heard anything of him.
In fact, during their annual gathering of 2016, July 22, while Mariam Rajavi praised her husband Masood as the leader of the organisation, a very, very distinguished Arab politician twice in his speech, mentioned the name of Masood Rajavi as the LATE leader of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, and precisely pronounced the word ‘marhoom’, clearly meaning ‘late’.
When Mariam Rajavi heard the word, her face shrank, but she did not comment. Because the word ‘marhoom’ is an expression of condolence in Arabic. Interestingly, the translator also ignored the word.
I mention this to suggest to readers that such suspicious hiding of facts does nothing to promote their goal. And from that moment I was convinced of the aimlessness of this discussion.”
Mazda Parsi
Reference:
Abdulrahman, Anwar, A political puzzle in Paris…, Bahrain News, July 10 2018