Whenever Iran’s resistance movement, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), gets closer to its goal of overthrowing the mullahs’ regime, the self-proclaimed “scholar” Michael Rubin of the AEI, begins to parrot the debunked and libelous allegations of the Iranian intelligence service (MOIS), according to Ali Safavi, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, in a recent op-ed.

Of course, he said, Rubin and his fellow “analysts” can complain at length about the MEK, but they aren’t able to change the fact that the MEK’s support is only growing inside and outside of Iran. This is probably what led to the ridiculous claims that the MEK rules its followers “with an iron fist”, even though Rubin has already written that the MEK fell into oblivion.

The truth is that the MEK doesn’t control its followers and all are free to come and go as they please, while the MEK remains a major power player on the Iranian political scene, even if the mullahs have shut them out of the official power structure all the way back in 1981.

Safavi wrote: “Interestingly, Rubin took his latest cue from the Iranian regime, whose Foreign Ministry launched a frantic attack against the hundreds of foreign dignitaries attending the Free Iran World Summit 2021. Just read the Ayatollahs’ desperate head-bashing on July 10: “Bought western politicians (incl #LyingCheatingStealing Pompeo) sell themselves cheap for a Europe-hosted circus arranged by a once Saddam-backed terrorist cult with Iranian blood on its hands.”

Rubin could be accused of plagiarism as his recent writings make the same claims, almost word for word. His claims were then reprinted by Iran’s state-controlled media outlets, creating a vicious cycle.

Safavi said that Rubin was “morally abhorrent” for siding with the mullahs and their crimes against humanity, however, he assessed that the reason for doing this was probably that the regime is terrified of how the international community (and especially Iranians) will react to new president Ebrahim Raisi, who played a major role in the 1988 massacre.

Rubin lived in Iran during the 1990s and it’s not known exactly what he did there, aside from the vague “studying” claims, but Safavi suggests that he is an example of an Iranian agent sent undercover in the West to work as a reporter, as a former Intelligence Minister admitted was a common occurrence.

In January, the US arrested Kaveh Afrasiabi, who has for years lobbied officials and published various literature in support of the mullahs’ political agenda, as an “unregistered agent of the Iranian government”.

Safavi wrote: “Once the mullahs are toppled, and MOIS archives become public, more will come to light as to who else the Ayatollahs had hired as ghostwriters… The MOIS has routinely instructed its propagandists to speak out against the theocracy 80% of the time but to bash the main opposition in the remaining 20%. Many exposed pro-regime writers criticize the mullahs more than Rubin does in a bid to lend credibility to their attacks on the MEK.”