IRAN: The World-Wide Push in favor of People’s Mujahedin

Source: IntelligenceOnline.com

Already able to count on active backing in the U.S. Congress, the opposition Iranian movement People’s Mujahedin has its friends in the European Parliament, too.

The vice president of the European Parliament, Spain’s Alejo Vidal-Quadras, became head of a new organization last month that will work to remove the People’s Mujahedin (Mujahedin-e Kalq: MEK) from Europe’s list of terrorist organizations. Dubbed In Search for Justice -European Committee for De-Listing People’s Mujahedin of Iran (ISJ-ECDP), the organization was launched on Sept. 16 a few months after MEK was withdrawn from Britain's list of terrorist organizations (see Page 5).

In the United States, where MEK figures on the State Department's list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) since 1997, the Mujahedin already has a number of powerful friends. Legislators and security-minded members of the Iran Policy Committee (IPC, see graph) are stepping up efforts to get the movement removed from the FTO list, which is coming up for review later this month.

In addition, MEK’s American and European lobbyist are doing their utmost to see to the security of around 3,500 of the organization’s fighters who are currently disarmed and languishing in the Ashraf camp in Iraq under the control and protection of the U.S. Current talks about the U.S. abandoning the camp and leaving the fighters under the authority of the Iraqi government are at the center of current negotiations between Tehran and Washington.