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How Tehran Benefits From Mission Outside Iran

How Tehran Benefits From Mission Outside Iran

Mehran Bahramian
September 9, 2011

Mr. Kadivar along with Trita Parsi and his group who introduce themselves the employees in NIAC and the Advisory Board of this organization , in a letter to Mrs. Clinton, US Secretary of State dated 29th of March 2011, recommending that the PMOI not to be delisted from the FTO list. They argue that delisting PMOI will impair the green movement. The article was published in Financial Times on 8th of August, but hours later were removed from the site.

Since they claim that they are the opposition to the current government, I was surprised to observe such a position. The opposition has a specific meaning and one cannot imagine that about a subject of domestic politics such a similarity of opinion subsist between the opposition and the ruling regime. Curiosity made me study what the real story is.

After a little scrutiny I found that a little earlier, in an interview about the massacre of political prisoners in Iran on 1988 and the operation Eternal Light that MEK made an offensive inside Iran in the summer of 1988 when they captured 3 bordering towns, but finally retreated to Iraqi territory after three days, Mr. Kadivar more clearly declared his positions.

In the interview about those who participated in the operation with the aims of overthrowing the mullahs and many gave their lives, he alleged: "Well they came, some of them were arrested, some were killed and went to hell in the battlefield”.

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Elsewhere Khadivar goes to speak in favour of the massacre of 1988 which is considered as one the world's most significant and brutal crimes against humanity in modern history and during the rule of the mullahs in Iran. Interestingly, while Ayatollah Montazeri, Khomeini's deputy, considered Khomeini responsible for this crime, Mr. Kadivar said, "Information Minister Mohammad Reyshhry who was unfortunately in charge at the time went to the leader and took his approval for the massacre and that anyone who collaborated with those who have participated in the attack to Iran, even those who were in the prisons and not on the battlefield, are subjected to similar penalties. It meant that those who were defending their beliefs and stoke to their positions were executed. Many people close to three thousand (3,000 as he claimed and 30,000, according to others), some of which were captured in the battlefield and some who were in prison, they were subjected to a quick trial and execution. "

This is the distortion of history only three decade after the event.

Khomeini's role in the massacre was neither denied nor fainted by anyone, and nobody has any doubt that Reyshahry was only one of the elements under his command.

The downplaying of such a vulgar murder, along with the use of derogatory terms about those have sacrificed their lives for the freedom of their homeland and their believes, was the first points that caught my attention in connection with Mr. Kadivar .

Even Ayatollah Montazeri, that the movement called "green" and Mr. Kadivar claims to follow and inspire from, emphasized that the PMOI are a logic and are not destroyed by mass executions but rather promoted. This expression is absolutely different from that stained with Mohsen Kadivar's hatred.

Despite the forms, in the content of his actions one can clearly scrutinize the alignment of the long-term interests of Mr. Kadivar with the regime.

Kadivar and one of his associates Ahmad Sadri, in early April 2011 released a statement seeking to maintain the PMOI on the list of foreign terrorist organizations in the State Department: The statement reads:

“As Washington policymakers seek new ways to pressure their counterparts in Tehran to yield on nuclear developments, they must refrain from actions that would harm the long-term prospects of trust and friendship between the two peoples.

Removing the MEK from the FTO at this juncture would embolden Iran's hardliners to intensify their repression and discredit the Green Movement by implying that it is somehow connected to the widely detested MEK terror group. Furthermore, supporting the MEK would provide the Iranian government with the specter of a foreign-based threat that could be exploited to heal key fractures within the system, increase the number of Iranians who would rally around the flag, and facilitate the suppression of the indigenous political opposition.

For all of its mistakes in the Middle East, the Bush administration -- even at the height of its aggressive foreign policy -- understood that delisting the MEK from the State Department's terrorist list would be a dangerous gambit. It would trigger a huge loss of U.S. soft power in Iran, damage Iran's democratic progress and help Iranian hardliners cement a long-term dictatorship. “

Isn’t it bizarre that while all the world have acknowledged that the Iranian regime is based internally on creating terror and through execution and torture and on the international scene is the biggest threat and challenge to the free world and their daily steps to acquire nuclear weapons is no secret, and is truly the most deserving government for the terrorist tag, he is advocating that it fits MEK? In the history of the movements of nations it is very rare that a group opposing an autocracy and a brutal regime is dedicated to the stigmatization of another group in the opposition front.

Is it not a fact that in a democratic society the boundary to express a comment or claim is having credible argument and evidence, and not a non-democratic way and lies?

Is it not the fact in the present circumstances that when it seems the MEK might be delisted from the State Department's terrorist list Mr. Kadivar with other lobbies of the regime outside Iran have entered the scene hurriedly requesting Hillary Clinton, not to delist MEK from FTO list?

In what front does he really belong? Beside the Iranian people and the popular uprising for freedom and democracy in Iran or on the side of Mullahs against the revolution?

Is it not that his mission is the preservation of the clerical regime?

*************

Mehran Bahramian is an Iranian scholar living in exile in Sweden. He advocates democracy in Iran and has had many of his friends killed by the regime in Tehran. Bahramian has been following political events in Iran for 20 years.

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