Massoud Rajavi – Publicist

Another Hard Blow to Iran's Terror Campaign against MEK Iran

The Albanian police chief revealed the details of a terrorist network linked to the Iranian regime, which was conspiring against members of the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

In addition to a list of spying activities, this terrorist network was found responsible for a frustrated terrorist plan in 2018 against the Nowruz celebration ceremony of the MEK Iran members in Tirana. The event was attended by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, elected president of the National Resistance Council of Iran (NCRI), Mr. Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York and lawyer of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, and other distinguished dignitaries of several countries. Thousands of MEK Iran members were also present at the ceremony.

According to a statement issued by the Albanian police chief, the Quds Force commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the notorious terrorist arm of Tehran, were directly orchestrating the failed terrorist attempt.

In addition to using Iranian agents, the Quds Force had also recruited professional criminal gangs from Turkey to carry out the attack against the members of MEK Iran. The discovery and exposure of this terrorist plot was widely covered by the international media.

According to the police, a key element of the terrorist cell that was revealed was an Iranian named Alireza Naghashzadeh, a resident of Austria, who worked with the demonization campaign of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence under the disguise of a "former member of MEK Iran" along with other members of the regime.

The Iranian regime has a long history of terrorist attacks against MEK Iran worldwide, over the period between the 1980s and the 1990s. However, after protests broke out in more than 140 Iranian cities in 2018, the terrorist activities of the Iranian regime against MEK Iran entered a new phase.

In February 2018, Ali Jamenei, the supreme leader of the regime, emphasized that MEK Iran had organized the uprisings nationwide and had spent months preparing for this. He promised to take revenge.

A week before Jamenei's statements, Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of the regime, had said: "The MEK Iran will receive your response when they least expect it."

The terrorist attempt of the Iranian regime was opposed by the European authorities in June and July of the same year, when terrorists led by an Iranian diplomat tried to bomb the annual "Free Iran" Resistance meeting in Paris. The event was attended by tens of thousands of Iranians and hundreds of dignitaries from dozens of countries. Assadollah Assadi, the Iranian diplomat in charge of the attack, was arrested by the German police. He was later extradited to Belgium, where he is awaiting trial along with three other accomplices. The episode became a great diplomatic scandal for the Iranian regime. The French government and then the EU announced that the Iranian vice minister of intelligence was involved in the operation in addition to Assadi. Iranian resistance revealed that the decision of the operation was taken in the Supreme Security Council of the regime chaired by Rouhani.

After these failed attacks, the regime resorted to more propaganda and dissemination of lies against the Iranian opposition. The regime recruited several reporters and journalists who worked for different foreign media, including NBC, Der Spiegel, UK Chanel 4 and English Aljazeera TV, responsible for creating counterfeit reports against MEK Iran using agents of the Ministry of Intelligence under the guise of "former members of the MEK Iran". Der Spiegel received an order by the court to remove certain parts of his report. The intensification of the propaganda and psychological warfare was the prelude to terrorist acts.

To the dismay of the regime, Albania's response was to expel the ambassador of the regime in Tirana, as well as his first deputy in December 2018. Both agents of the Quds Force, the two Iranian diplomats were key actors in the terror campaigns, espionage and propaganda of Tehran against members of the MEK in Albania. France, the Netherlands and other European countries also took similar measures against the regime's spies in their countries.

But, in addition to giving a serious blow to the foreign terrorist network of the Iranian regime, the recent revelation of the Albanian police has strategic and political consequences for Tehran. The fact shows the change in the balance of power between the regime on the one hand and the Iranian Resistance, MEK Iran (the anti-regime organization) and the people of Iran on the other.

During the five-day “Free Iran” events in Ashraf 3, Albania, more than 350 dignitaries from 47 different countries gathered at the MEK Iran headquarters to support the Iranian Resistance and the struggles of the Iranian people to overthrow the mullahs regime.

The revelations of the Albanian police are not isolated from other political events around the world regarding the Iranian regime and opposition. The mullah’s regime is facing economic crises along with an increase in popular dissent in their country. The revolts that grow rapidly scare the regime.

Meanwhile, Javaid Rahman, special reporter on the situation of human rights in Iran, reiterated his concern about human rights abuses in Iran and the continued use of the death penalty by the regime, especially against children and minorities.

All these events underline the reality that the tides are turning against the mullahs that govern Iran, both within the country and on the international scene. Consequently, the people of Iran and their resistance movement, freedom fighters in Ashraf 3, resistance units in all Iranian cities and towns, and supporters of the Iranian opposition around the world, are moving to fulfill the long-sought dream of freedom and democracy in their country.

Massoud Rajavi

Massoud Rajavi, born in 1947 to an Iranian family of intellectuals, attended Tehran University where he earned his degree in political science. As a supporter of the Freedom Movement of Iran, Massoud Rajavi became acquainted with the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), when the MEK was still a very young Iranian opposition movement. Rajavi joined the PMOI/MEK in 1967, and subsequently became one of its leaders. There, Rajavi helped in studying and documenting the organization’s ideological principles.

Massoud Rajavi
In 1971, during a series of raids by Savak, the secret police of the Shah regime, Massoud Rajavi was arrested together with the entire leadership and Central Committee of the PMOI/MEK. While in prison, Rajavi was brutally tortured and sentenced to death along with the rest of the leaders of the MEK. Thanks to the efforts of his older brother Kazem, a respected jurist in Geneva, Massoud’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Unfortunately, he was the only one who was spared, and the rest of the MEK leadership was executed in 1972.
Massoud Rajavi then assumed leadership of the organization and helped steer the young movement through the many trials and tribulations that lay in its path. Until his release in 1979, Massoud Rajavi continued to lead the MEK from inside the prison, helping organize the movement that aimed at toppling the Shah’s regime and bringing freedom to Iran. In the first years that followed the 1979 revolution, Massoud Rajavi directed the efforts of the MEK to raise awareness of the threats of extremism by holding meetings and political rallies. The MEK tried in a very peaceful manner to prevent Khomeini’s regime from establishing a tyrannical rule. During this time, Massoud Rajavi and the MEK grew very popular among Iranians, and the organization expanded to tens of thousands of members across Ira

Massoud Rajavi’s Life and Work

Massoud Rajavi was born in Tabas, in 1947 in a family of intellectuals. He earned a degree in political science at Tehran University. Rajavi, as an adolescent, became acquainted with the teachings of the progressive cleric Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani. He also supported the Freedom Movement of Iran. This was an organization that was in league with Mohammad Mossadegh, the popular Iranian prime minister who nationalized Iran’s oil industry in 1951.

In 1953, in a coup instigated by foreign powers, Mossadegh was deposed by the regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

While he was a university student, Rajavi became acquainted with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). At that time, MEK Iran was still a very young Iranian opposition movement. He was a big supporter of the principles and ideals that MEK’s members and leaders sought and their dedication to achieving freedom and democracy in Iran.

In 1967, Rajavi joined MEK Iran and was appointed to the MEK’s ideological group by the leader and founder of the MEK, Mohammad Hanifnejad. There he helped in studying and documenting the organization’s ideological principles. Later he became a member of the PMOI/MEK’s Central Committee.

The 1979 revolution

Iran was increasingly shaken by nationwide demonstrations that raged against the tyrannical rule of the Shah, in the final years of the 1970s. The release of all political prisoners from Shah’s prisons was demanded by many of these demonstrations.

Shah’s regime gave in under the mounting pressure of popular revolt and released the last group of political prisoners, in January 1979. Among these prisoners was the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) leader, Massoud Rajavi and several senior members of the now-famous Iranian opposition organization.

The Shah regime was toppled by popular uprisings, less than a month later. The powerful cleric who has been in exile Ruhollah Khomeini, returned to Iran to seize control of the country and establish what he named “the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Massoud Rajavi as the leader of MEK Iran focused on the protection of the freedoms and rights of the Iranian people and on the prevention of the mullahs from imposing their outdated beliefs and practices on the Iranian people.

In the first years that followed the 1979 Iranian revolution, Rajavi directed his efforts on raising awareness on the threats of extremism by holding meetings and political rallies. In a very peaceful manner, the MEK tried to prevent Khomeini’s regime from establishing a tyrannical rule. Rajavi and MEK Iran grew very popular among Iranians. During this time the organization expanded to tens of thousands of members across Iran.

Massoud Rajavi gave weekly lectures in Tehran’s Sharif University. In these lessons, he introduced and detailed the worldview and ideology of the MEK. Rajavi’s lessons were attended by thousands of people.

Today, Rajavi’s word continues to be in the words of international dignitaries.

IRAN OPPOSITION PARLIAMENT IN EXILE

On July 21, 1981, Massoud Rajavi, announced in Tehran the formation of a coalition of democratic opposition forces seeking to overthrow Velayat-e Faqih’s mullahs' regime and establish a pluralistic democracy in the country. Massoud Rajavi was the then leader of the opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran. He has chosen the date of 21 July, because it marks the anniversary of the Iranian people's uprising against the Shah and in honor of the nationalist leader Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq in 1952.

Massoud Rajavi flew to Paris, ten days later, and set the headquarters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Auvers-sur-Oise, north of Paris. This had rapidly turned into a focus of attention for policymakers and reporters in France and other countries.

The organization NCRI began a series of intense and lengthy meetings. In these meetings, its members drafted and adopted the Council's constitution, its platform, and the immediate tasks of a provisional government as well as the NCRI's internal modus operandi.

In 1993, the NCRI unanimously elected Maryam Rajavi, the spouse of Massoud Rajavi, as President-elect of NCRI for the transitional period after the mullahs' overthrow.

The NCRI adopted a plan to form the National Solidarity Front for the overthrow of Iran's ruling religious tyranny in 2002.

In 2005, it was declared by Maryam Rajavi, the NCRI's President-elect that in the free Iran of tomorrow, they will be committed to and defend the abolition of the death penalty and elimination of all forms of cruel punishments, such as the Convention against Torture, international humanitarian laws, and the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

The NCRI acts as the Iranian people's Parliament-in-Exile and legislative assembly. It has over 530 members, 52% of whom are women. The NCRI has 25 committees.

Representatives of Iran's diverse religious and ethnic combination are included in NCRI, such as the Kurds, Baluchis, Arabs, Persians, Turks, Turkomans, Muslims, Armenians, Jews and Zoroastrians as well as atheists, and adherents to various persuasions and schools of thought.

Also, the NCRI includes artists, writers, physicians, businessmen, bazaar merchants, university professors, military servicemen, athletes, politicians, scientists and industrialists.

The Founding of NCRI and Massoud Rajavi’s Work

Massoud Rajavi joined the PMOI/MEK in 1967. Soon he was appointed by the Mohammad Hanifnejad, the leader and founder of MEK Iran, to the MEK’s ideological group. There he helped the study and documentation of the organization’s ideological principles. Later, Rajavi became a member of the PMOI/MEK Iran’s Central Committee.

Massoud Rajavi, since 1981, has remained adamant that the only solution for Iran’s and Middle East’s problems is a is democratic regime change in Iran.

Rajavi holds the belief that the Iranian people and their organized resistance movement have everything they need to bring about democratic change in Iran. It is upon this belief that he has founded the largest independent opposition movement in Iran’s modern history.

On numerous occasions, Western states have tried to tackle the challenges posed by the Iranian regime. They have done this through appeasement and rapprochement and the endorsement of so-called “moderate” and “reformist” groups within the regime. It has often been at the cost of causing damage to the Iranian people and the Iranian opposition.