At the Free Iran Summit in Washington D.C. on October 28, former United States Vice President Mike Pence gave a speech and praised the Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) for being a ‘well-organized, fully prepared, perfectly qualified and popularly supported alternative’ to the Iranian regime.

Following his remarks, back in Tehran, many state-media outlets condemned him for supporting what the regime sees as a ‘terrorist’ organization and began publishing inflammatory stories and unfounded allegations against the MEK.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said, “At the same time, some bloggers in the U.S. attempted to exploit the event for partisan reasons, thus unwittingly aligning them with the regime’s talking points. One example was posted on POLITICO’s blog, which tied Pence to an ‘extremist’ group.”

In the blog, references were made to a supposed poll taken in Iran claiming that the MEK was unpopular domestically. However, the results of the poll are not a true account of the beliefs of the Iranian people. Considering that historically, people who have identified their support of the MEK have been executed for ‘waging war on God’, as seen during the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners, Iranian people are reluctant to answer honestly for fear of retribution from the Iranian regime.

It is not on paper that the truth is apparent, it is in the actions of the Iranian people that portray their true feelings. From the mass protests across the country in recent years to the boycott of the presidential elections earlier this year, these events have shown that there is barely any support for the regime or their leaders as calls for regime change continue to ring out.

The support for the MEK around the world from foreign dignitaries has been steadily growing over the years as people are finally seeing the regime for who they really are. A 5-day gathering at the MEK’s headquarters in Albania this year welcomed delegates from 47 countries who came together to show their support for the Resistance organization. Those delegates included former prime ministers and party leaders, as well as senior military commanders and officers, and even human rights experts and women’s rights activists.

The NCRI said, “To allege that these distinguished dignitaries have staked their entire political reputations, careers, and legal futures to defend an ‘extremist’ and ‘terrorist’ group is not only the height of ignorance but an insult to the integrity of these public servants.”

It is believed that the MEK’s former terrorist listings in the U.S. and the EU were because foreign governments attempted to get on the regime’s good side to establish good relations for future dealings.

The blog post claimed that the MEK was only delisted due to ‘an intense lobbying campaign’ which is false. The U.S. Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that they would delist the MEK itself if the U.S. State Department failed to lift the 15-year-old designation.

With the pressure that the Iranian regime is currently under, both domestically and internationally, they are desperate to clamber onto whatever support they have left by continuing to score political points against the MEK, to little avail.

Calls for the prosecution of the regime’s president, Ebrahim Raisi grow day by day due to the role he played during the 1988 massacre in Iran, and he has already been condemned by international human rights organizations and UN authorities.

The NCRI said, “Today, while some are desperately trying to promote rapprochement with a fundamentalist dictatorship that is impossible to reason with, there are also others who are standing firm against the fundamentalist theocracy in Iran, writing history patiently and honorably by standing on the side of the Iranian people and their freedom fighters.”