The thing is that the Regime has a viable alternative in the form of the oldest, largest, and most popular resistance organization in Iran, which has fought two separate regimes since it was founded in 1965. That is the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
In order to help you learn more about the MEK, we have created an in-depth series. In this part, we will learn about how the Iranian Regime seeks to destroy the MEK outside of Iran.
The Iranian Regime seeks to eliminate the MEK inside and outside Iran for the sole reason that the MEK is the best shot the Iranian people have at overthrowing the mullahs. Inside Iran, they have banned the MEK and routinely arrest and execute MEK supporters, but outside, they assassinate and attempt to discredit MEK members.
Since 1979, the Iranian Regime has assassinated at least 162 political opponents outside Iran, according to the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre, the majority of which were MEK members.
These are not rogue elements in the Iranian Regime, as the mullahs might claim. Rather these are high-ranking officials who go onto better positions within the Regime. In 1994, President Hassan Rouhani admitted to Ettela’ at newspaper that he was a member of a select extra-legal committee in Iran that authorized assassinations of the MEK. He said that Iran “will not hesitate to destroy the activities of counterrevolutionary groups abroad”.
Now, for a time the Regime was largely forced to curtail its violent attacks on the MEK outside of Iran due to international pressure, but in the past few years, Iran has begun to assassinate MEK members, even going so far as to plot terror attacks in Europe in 2018.
The Regime has also tried hard to discredit the MEK using propaganda campaigns, something noted by intelligence agencies in Europe.
The Netherlands’ General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) said: “Teheran’s efforts to undermine the opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) in the Netherlands continued unabated in 2011. In a campaign co-ordinated and financed by the Iranian intelligence services, the media and a number of politicians and other public servants were approached with a view toward portraying the MEK in a highly negative light.”
The Federal Office for the Protection of the German Constitution (BfV), said: “The main responsibilities of the Iranian regime’s intelligence apparatus revolve around monitoring and severely confronting opposition groups inside and outside Iran…Iranian regime’s efforts in the context of gathering information about the exiled opposition are concentrated on the [MEK] and the NCRI.”
Of course, the Regime will never be able to destroy the MEK or end the support it receives internationally because the Iranian people and diaspora are well aware that that the MEK is the best chance they have to get rid of the mullahs and usher in a new Iran where freedom and democracy reign. In our next piece, we will talk about the international support that the MEK receive from both the Iranian diaspora and foreign diplomats.
