Judiciary Chief Warns of US-MKO Collaboration to Foment Insecurity in Iran
"Today, the US, its allies and Monafeqin (hypocrites as MKO
members are called in Iran) blatantly state that they have plotted for unrests
and chaos (in Iran), and we hold no doubt that enemy wants to disturb the
country's security," Amoli Larijani said, addressing the judiciary officials in
Tehran on Monday.
He warned that the MKO terrorists are now collaborating with the US and
seeking an opportunity to hit a blow to Iran.
Yet Amoli Larijani ensured that there is no room for the MKO terrorists in the
Iranian society and among the nation given the terrorist group's black record
that includes killing 17,000 Iranian people and officials in terror attacks.
After the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, the MKO was exiled first to Iraq
and then to Albania. Albania houses 3,000 MKO members.
Since last year, a slew of US politicians have visited the MKO in Albania, often
without any public announcement, or under cover of meeting some Albanian
politicians. These include former FBI director Louis J. Freeh, US Senator John
McCain (who addressed a MKO conference), and a delegation of US Senators Thom
Tillis, Roy Blunt, and John Cornyn.
A few months later, US Congressman Ted Poe introduced a bill in the House of
Representatives calling upon the government of Iraq "to compensate the former
residents of Camp Ashraf (the former MKO camp) for their assets seized by groups
affiliated with the Government of Iraq.”
Media reports said last month that US National Security Adviser John Bolton
received $40,000 to participate and address the audience in a gathering of the
MKO terrorist group in Paris in July 2017.
According to documents released by al-Monitor news website, the US Public
Financial Disclosure Report in January 2018 for Bolton indicated that he has
received $40,000 from the MKO as speaking fee in Paris gathering.
The date of speaking is July 1, 2017, and the event was titled 'Globe
Events--European Iranian Events'.
Bolton had in the same date attended the MKO gathering in Paris, stressing
during his address that the Islamic Republic should not be allowed to celebrate
the 40th anniversary of Revolution in Iran.
During his address, he said that new US President Donald Trump is fully opposed
to the "regime in Tehran".
"The outcome of the president’s policy review should be to determine that the
Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1979 revolution will not last until its 40th birthday,”
Bolton said.
Recently, Joanne Stocker, of the US portal Defense Post, told NBC that Bolton
had received more than $180,000 from the MKO to speak in their favor. Bolton’s
office has so far refused to comment on it.
The MKO, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and
participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of
the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both
Iranian and western targets.
The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the
revolution in a bid to take control of the newly-established Islamic Republic.
It killed several of Iran's new leaders in the early years after the revolution,
including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad
Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed
in bomb attacks by the MKO members in 1981.
The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and
where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the
country.
The terrorist group joined Saddam's army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran
(1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and
soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.
Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a
pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the
United States, who argued for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.
The US formally removed the MKO from its list of terror organizations in
September 2012, one week after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent the US
Congress a classified communication about the move. The decision made by Clinton
enabled the group to have its assets under the US jurisdiction unfrozen and do
business with the American entities, the State Department said in a statement at
the time.
In September 2012, the last groups of the MKO terrorists left Camp Ashraf, their
main training center in Iraq's Diyala province. They have been transferred to
Camp Liberty. Hundreds of the MKO terrorists have now been sent to Europe, where
their names were taken off the blacklist even two years before the US.
The MKO has assassinated over 12,000 Iranians in the last 4 decades. The
terrorist group had even killed large numbers of Americans and Europeans in
several terror attacks before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Some 17,000 Iranians have lost their lives in terror attacks in the 35 years
after the Revolution.
Rumors were confirmed in September 2016 about the death of MKO ringleader,
Massoud Rajavi, as a former top Saudi intelligence official disclosed in a gaffe
during an address to his followers.
Rajavi's death was revealed after Turki al-Faisal who was attending the MKO
annual gathering in Paris made a gaffe and spoke of the terrorist group's
ringleader as the "late Rajavi" twice.
Faced with Faisal's surprising gaffe, Rajavi's wife, Maryam, changed her happy
face with a complaining gesture and cued the interpreter to be watchful of
translation words and exclude the gaffe from the Persian translation.
Source: FNA