In the rebuttal, Safavi made seven points which we will address briefly, but you should read it in full.

Safavi began by explaining that the MEK has spent 40 years fighting for democracy against the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world and, as a result, has been severely attacked by those who advocate appeasing the mullahs.

He said: “Unable to openly defend the religious dictatorship in Iran, these apologists instead demonize the regime’s democratic alternative to justify appeasing the current regime.”

Safavi noted that the article quoted former State Department official Daniel Benjamin, who was the main opponent to the MEK’s legal battle against the false terrorist designation levied against it in the 1990s to appease the mullahs.

This is not the first time NBC has sought a quote from Benjamin. Last year, when European law enforcement agencies foiled the regime’s terror plot against the MEK in Paris, NBC echoed Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif by calling the plot a “false flag” and then quoted Benjamin as saying that nothing was simple and shifting the blame to the victims.

Then, Safavi quotes the US State Department’s recent release about the Iranian regime’s malign activities during nuclear negotiations and after the signing of the nuclear agreement as proof of Iran’s evil actions, especially against the MEK.

Safavi wrote: “The dozens of honourable and bipartisan American figures who support the MEK and the Iranian Resistance represent the conscience of humanity against the evils of the theocratic rulers of Iran. Targeting these personalities, including America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who have distinguished careers, is part of the clerical regime’s vilification campaign against the MEK, which is sadly echoed by supporters of appeasement vis-a-vis the regime like Daniel Benjamin.”

Safavi explained that Benjamin had while working as the State Department’s Counterterrorism official “inexplicably” refused to implement the orders of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to delist the MEK, meaning that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had to do it herself.

Safavi then easily dismissed claims that the MEK has no base in Iran, citing that over 100,000 of its members have been executed, yet they still continue to donate money to the MEK, hang up their posters, and fight for freedom.

Safavi wrote: “Such a movement could not have survived, much less continuously expand, for more than five decades without an extensive popular base. Why would an organization that lacks social support become the clerical regime’s main existential problem?… Hours after the publication of the NBC article, the clerical regime’s state-run media outlets, including the Fars news agency tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), embraced it and translated it into Farsi. Serving the godfather of terrorism and arming it with more fodder to suppress the Iranian people and the Iranian Resistance is utterly shameful.”