The tragedy of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war with more than one million deaths and two million injured and homeless, and with more than $1 trillion in damage are parts of the dark glory and pride of supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s regime.
But now the necessity of this war, which is hated by the Iranian people, has also been challenged by some of the regime’s officials, and the fact that Khomeini’s continuation of this war has been in vain for years has been discussed by a number of regime figures and media.
This forced Khamenei to warn in his last speech that the hands of distortion are lurking in the sense of this war. After his warnings, dozens of the regime’s media tried to whitewash the horrific results of this war for the country and spoke about its benefits, which clearly just the regime has benefited from this war and not the people. They warn each other that the ‘enemy is distorting the reality of this war. The question here is who is the enemy that all the officials and the media are referring to?
Farhad Bashiri, one of the regime’s MPs, on September 27, said: “Gentlemen, wake up, please be careful about ‘inside’ [the country] in these days, about the youths and the people. (ICANA website, September 27)
Interior Minister Rahmani Fazli said he considered the issue of internal security as the number one priority. (IRNA news agency, September 28)
The regime’s attorney general Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, while emphasizing the importance of this issue, said: “Today, the weapons of the enemy are working in our individual rooms and in our children and in our offices so that they can achieve their sinister goals, and therefore this war is far more difficult than a military war.” (ILNA news agency, September 26)
One of the regime’s IRGC officials Alireza Afshar in fear of this enemy gave the right address and said: “The inspirations of the enemy are always there or Albania, where they are stationed [Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI)] in cyberspace reflect these issues. Because one of the drawbacks of soft warfare is that you can feel it. At one time, one may be deceived. (State-run Channel One TV, September 24)
In terms of international activity, the regime is angry about the activities on the MEK, not least since many European countries condemn the regime’s human rights record as a result of the MEK’s activities. Tehran accuses the Europeans of supporting the MEK and the National Council of Resistance (NCRI).
The state-run Mardom Salari daily, while expressing its fear about the effects of the Mojahedin’s 24-hour campaign, wrote: “The current policies of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives are heavily influenced by the Mojahedin’s lobbying and round-the-clock propaganda. It is enough to look at the virtual summit that the Mojahedin held just one day before the implementation of the US trigger mechanism. According to them, a meeting on both sides of the Atlantic was attended by nine senators and 20 members of the US House of Representatives, and Rudy Giuliani and a dozen other anti-Iranian figures. (Mardom Salari daily, September 26)
The state-run Raja News website also accused the Europeans of a ‘complete support’ for the MEK and accused them of removing the name of the MEK from the terrorist list and wrote: “One of the special services of the Europeans to the members of this organization” was that they “have removed the name of the Mojahedin from the list of terror groups.”
According to the author of this site affiliated with Khamenei’s faction the sin on the Europeans, was not only removing the MEK from the terrorist list but also “One of the special services of Europeans to the members of the organization”, is that, “they provided their relocation to Europe” and “in the middle of the summer of 2016, members of this organization went to a camp in Albania with the direct support of the United States and Europe from Camp Liberty in Iraq.” (Raja News website, September 15)
The regime’s concern is undeniable based on the fact that the MEK and the Iranian Resistance are its main rivals. Especially since the regime inside the country is facing the influence of the ‘Resistance Units’ and is well aware that it is the MEK that directs all activities against the regime, a regime which is drowning in crisis.
It is not without reason that the regime these days has mobilized its mercenaries at home and abroad against this organization and especially its leadership. They just want to prevent the defection of their forces by warning of the danger of the MEK with dirty propaganda against them.
It is not without reason that after the attack of the ‘Resistance Units’ in Shiraz on the court that sentenced Navid Afkari to death, the regime became terrified and this event was covered by many state media, and that in this attack no one of the regime’s elements were harmed and only the court was set on fire, they expressed their happiness.
