On January 9, 2017, some 23 prominent US dignitaries urged the Trump Administration “to adopt and pursue an Iran policy that recognizes the interests and inalienable rights of the Iranian people, and not just the clerical regime ruling over them”; signatories stressed the regime’s aggressive policy is part of efforts on “preserving the vulnerable system of dictatorship”; calling to open lines of communication with the MEK and NCRI.
MEK is a proponent of Paris's exiled coalition group National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), members spanning 3-generations of the social spectrum and which is seeking a meeting in Washington.
Fox News’s Eric Shawn reported on the letter to Trump saying this could be: ‘[the] opening of the door to the Iranian Resistance / MEK. A pledge for a non-nuclear weapon’s Iran has a lot of attraction for Americans.’
Nuclear weaponization concerns
The letter came ahead of the mullahs' regime's aggressive move to test it’s medium-range ballistic missiles; which according to Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif does not impede the details of the Nuclear Agreement/Accord. But MEK who were first to bring intelligence of Iran’s nuclear ambitions to the International Community's attention, disagree. POTUS Trump also disagrees, and in uncharacteristic measure this week, got retweeted as saying: ‘Iran is playing with fire – they don’t appreciate how “kind” President Obama was to them.
Not me.’
For MEK, a prospective shift of US policy, reassessing details of the Nuclear Agreement is ripe; a feasibility which seems to be shaking the regime and its lobbies. If this agreement stalls, which many would claim it already has, then the “golden era” – a term used publicly by the mullahs’ officials to promote the US on Iran under Obama – is over.
A precipitous unease now hitting the religious regime; in retaliation ramping up a disinformation campaign against MEK at home in Iran, using its news channels to discredit the MEK's viability as a non-secular democratic alternative to the religious dictatorship.
Fake News against MEK
Fake news about the MEK has been key in Iran's policy for decades.
Many MEK members were driven out of Iran during a period of demonization of dissident voices, and lead to bloodbath massacres, June 1981.
Pressure is mounting from the International Community to see the Iranian regime as illegitimate, and that Individuals of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) be tried for their complicity during the second massacre of the 1980s, in which 30,000 political prisoners of conscience were systematically executed in 1988 – MEK members and affiliates who refused to renounce the organization.
A open door to the Iran resistance MEK
MEK network is a democratic force working in Iran, but also exiled in other countries and are united on point to have a firm US policy, MEK being described as a pivotal force for dealing with Iran in a POTUS Trump-era.
Mohammad Mohaddessin, the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), While welcoming the new sanctions on the Iranian regime said: “The IRGC and its affiliated para-military forces and their commanders, including Qassem Soleimani and Iraj Masjedi (Iranian regime’s ambassador to Iraq), should be expelled from the countries of the region, in particular from Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. Otherwise, the region will not witness peace and tranquility.”
The MEK has supporters across the social spectrum but also bipartisan support from US Congress officials across the political spectrum, also extending to French National assembly and the British Parliament.
Finally, in the letter the signatories conclude by recommending to the new Administration: ‘With a more enlightened grasp of the Iranian regime’s priorities and vulnerabilities, your Administration will be equipped to exert leverage enabling the US to oppose Tehran’s repression and adventurism while standing for the fundamental values both our peoples share.’
