The Washington Times published an article on the recent press briefing by the National Council of Resistance of Iran – U.S. representative office, on the Inner Workings of Tehran’s terror network.

The Washington Times published a piece on Wednesday, May 1, covering the National Council of Resistance of Iran’s (NCRI’s) press conference in Washington D.C.

The Deputy Director of the NCRI’s US operations, Alireza Jafarzadeh, is quoted in the piece pushing for the US government to take a firmer stance against the bloody and violent Iranian regime. In the press conference, Jafarzadeh urged the United States to add the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) to its terror blacklist.

An Instrument of Terror

The MOIS has been behind many of the mullahs’ state-sponsored terror attacks planned across the globe. In 2018 alone, the Iranian regime orchestrated 10 separate terror attacks in countries like France, Albania and the US.

The MOIS uses diplomatic buildings in Europe as cover to send terror agents into the countries. In one incident last year, a diplomat working out of the regime’s Austrian embassy provided a Belgian-Iranian couple with explosive material. The couple’s target was the annual Grand Gathering of the largest Iranian opposition group in Paris.

“It is a clear sign of desperation. … The policy of [Iranian] appeasement had failed,” Jafarzadeh said. In response to increasing international isolation, the Iranian regime has increased its global terror activities.

“If [the U.S.] wants to fight terrorism, you designate the MOIS” as a terror organization, Jafarzadeh told reporters. Other notable terror groups on the US foreign terrorist organization (FTO) blacklist include al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, etc.

Progress Under Trump

The strong progress in Iran policy under Donald Trump has not been lost on the NCRI and the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (MEK). The Trump administration has withdrawn the United States from the failing Iran nuclear deal, re-introduced economic sanctions, and listed the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.

These moves have restricted the regime’s cash flow and brought enormous pressure against the Iranian regime to return to the bargaining table.

This has been the objective according to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He told reporters, “We’re going to zero across the board. Our goal has been to get countries to cease importing Iranian oil altogether.”

A Matter of Life and Death

“This is not theoretical mumbo-jumbo, this is about life and death,” former US Ambassador to Bahrain Adam Ereli said on Wednesday. The Iranian regime’s persistent use of terror and intimidation as a tool of statecraft is a danger to global peace and stability.

The US must respond with strength and place the MOIS on its terror blacklist. Until it does so, it will continue to raise funds and coordinate devastating attacks across the West. It is a matter of life and death for every member of the Iranian opposition living abroad in exile, but also for the citizens of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the US, who are at risk of being caught up in a deadly Iranian terror attack.

Staff writer