Because of this, many regime advocates in the US began to criticize Trump for his policies in order to change his mind.

Last month, National Security Advisor John Bolton, a noted Iran hawk, left his post and this encouraged more regime apologists to come out of the woodwork and call for the US to change its policy on Iranian favor of one that would help the mullahs and reject the MEK. One of these people is Jason Rezaian, a known apologist for the mullahs, who wrote in the Washington Post that this created “the first real opportunity for Trump to pursue a policy of engaging Iran”.

This is a dangerous policy to advocate and MEK Press Spokesman Shahin Gobadi explained why in his article “Misplaced and Premature jubilation by an apologist of the murderous mullahs of Iran” and a shorter version on the Washington Post’s website, where he challenges Rezaian’s allegation about MEK and its domestic popularity, arguing that appeasing the mullahs is a dead-end policy.

Gobadi noted that Rezaian could not possibly know how much support the MEK has inside the totalitarian and repressed state that is Iran and that his “absurd” claims that the MEK has “no popular support” and is “reviled by Iranians” fall apart under the most basic examination.

Gobadi wrote: “Outside Iran, where Iranians can express their views without the fear of being persecuted, tens of thousands of MEK supporters held major rallies in five major European capitals, Paris, BrusselsBerlinStockholmLondon and in Washington, DC to call for regime change. Indeed, the three-hour-long rally and march from the State Department to the White House, not only snarled traffic in the nation’s capital for several hours, but it also caught the attention of the mainstream media, save for the Post. Even the White House noticed the elaborate and well-organized rally.”

Indeed, shortly after the MEK rally, Vice President Mike Pence said: “What we want to do is stand with the Iranian people, thousands of whom gathered outside the White House on Friday, and tens of thousands of which, took to the streets last year in communities across Iran, we want to stand with them.” 

Gobadi concluded that Rezaian anti-MEK sources must be the Iranian regime and its lobby in the west who wish to discredit the MEK as the viable alternative to the regime and force democratic governments to engage with the mullahs. He said that those who advocate appeasing the mullahs fail to grasp the reality, which is that the Regime is at a dead-end and the MEK will take over Iran.

Gobadi wrote:” The era when the mullahs could forestall the crisis of being overthrown by relying on appeasement is over. The Iranian street will determine the fate of the mullahs, especially since all the propaganda by the likes of Rezaian about Rouhani’s moderation has turned out to be hollow. And if past is prologue, the mullahs’ disastrous 40-year reign has proven that no amount of political and economic concessions will moderate the behavior of this regime. The troglodyte clerics only understand the language of decisiveness and “maximum pressure.”