On Wednesday Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama reaffirmed his country’s commitment to providing refuge for members of the MEK Iran. Rama made the announcement during a joint press conference with Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels.

On Wednesday a delegation from Albania’s Socialist Movement for Integration Party traveled to Ashraf-3, the MEK’s headquarters in Albania to meet with the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) President-elect Mrs. Maryam Rajavi. The delegation was headed by Albanian MP

Monika Kryemadhi, the Chair of the Socialist Movement for Integration Party and wife of Albanian President Ilir Meta.

On Thursday, the Albanian government shuttered Saadi College in Tirana in its latest effort to fight the exportation of terrorism by the Iranian regime. The college and “cultural center” was headed by one of the two Iranian regime diplomats who were recently expelled from Albania.

The German website DW published an article on Tuesday discussing the threat posed by the Iranian regime to Albania after a U.S. drone strike killed Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani. The article quoted regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who described Albania as “a small but evil European country in which Americans and traitors against Iran got together to conspire against the Islamic Republic.”

On Wednesday 8 January 2019, after the missile attack of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) against the US. Forces in Iraq, Ali Khamenei, the Iranian Regime’s Supreme Leader, demoralized after the elimination of Qassem Soleimani, desperately lashed out the Albania and Iran protests.

August 30^th marks the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. Amnesty International issued a statement in regard to this day.

“The Iranian authorities’ continued failure to disclose the fate and whereabouts of thousands of political dissidents who were forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed in secret during Iran’s 1988 prison massacres has sparked a crisis that for decades has been largely overlooked by the international community,”

The statement refers to the 1988 massacre of over 30,000 political prisoners, mostly members, and supporters of the main Iranian opposition, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), Mujahedin-e Khalq or MEK.

Statement by @AmnestyIran on #1988Massacre in #Iran: It is misguided to view the 1988 mass killings as historical events. The enforced disappearances are ongoing &, 30 years later, victims’ families continue to be tormented https://t.co/dTMvR7nntR

— Dowlat Nowrouzi (@DowlatNowrouzi) August 28, 2019

On July 15, 2019, a number of survivors of the massacre testified in a conference held in Ashraf 3 in Albania.

Majid Sahebjam, a MEK member, who was in prison for 17 years for supporting the MEK was one of the witnesses.

“My crime was supporting the MEK. I witnessed many human rights violations. The 1988 massacre was a premeditated and well-planned crime. Some of the people who were directly involved in this crime still hold high positions of power. The regime has done everything in its power to hide its crime. In the short trials, which lasted only a few minutes, the judges only asked one question: They asked about the political association of the defendant. Uttering the word “Mojahed, MEK member” was enough to seal the fate of the prisoner and send him to the gallows…I know at least 20 families who lost two of their children to the regime’s executioners. Many of the executed prisoners were aged 14, 15, and 16 when they were arrested. During the 1988 massacre, dozens of MEK supporters had served their sentences. However, they were kept in prison because they would not repent their support for the MEK. They were executed in 1988 because of their dedication to freedom and human values,” Sahebjam addressed the conference.

Mahmoud Royaie another MEK member who spent 10 years in regime’s prisons also addressed the conference.

“Many of my friends were teenagers when they were arrested. They spent many years in prison and were finally executed. People had served their sentences, and their families were waiting for them. However, they never got to see them. One of my friends was executed five years after his sentence was finished. He was taken to the gallows only because he defended the name of the MEK,” Royaie said. “Some of these families are still staring at the pictures of their loved ones and crying after 30 years. Some lost their sanity when their children were executed. The regime even executed the disabled and handicapped. Yet they stood tall when they went to the gallows. One of my friends had lost his mind due to tortures. However, when they took him to the judge, he stood tall and said, “I’m a Mojahed, MEK member.” He was executed.”

Kobra Jokar, a MEK member also addressed the conference. She managed to escape from prison before the massacre.

“I was in the regime’s prisons for six years. The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) arrested me while I was pregnant. I was taken to Evin prison and the torture chambers. I was transferred to Ward 209. In the cell, I saw four torturers torture my husband in front of me. They also tortured me in front of him,” She said.  “A few days later, they executed him with 75 others…The regime executed 50 pregnant women, including Masumeh, the sister of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi…I managed to escape prison in 1987. One year later, all of those ladies who shared the cell with me were executed in the 1988 massacre.”

Mostafa Naderi, a MEK member shared his story and said:

“I spent 11 years in prison, five of those years in solitary confinement. During the 1988 massacre, I was hospitalized because of torture. I was unconscious when they called my name for execution, and this is how I survived. In the beginning, they said nothing of the executions, claiming the prisoners were going for family visits. In many smaller cities, not even a single person survived to tell the story of the massacre. In prison, I was severely tortured. After eight months of torture, I and five other prisoners were taken to a mullah who said we would be executed that night. They took us to the place for execution. They tied our hands and we heard the guns being loaded. They fired, but they aimed a bit higher than our heads. We suffered a traumatic experience. One of the prisoners fainted and another lost his eyesight. The 1988 massacre was planned from two years before. However, the massacre continues to this day. We must stop this.”

The time has come for the United Nations to launch an international independent fact-finding mission to determine the fate of victims of the 1988 massacre in Iran.

In 1988, Khomeini, the founder of the mullahs’ religious dictatorship, penned the fatwa ordering the massacre of political prisoners. #1988Massacre #NoImpunity4Mullahs #InternationalDayoftheDisappeared #Iran pic.twitter.com/UiYKl4PmGP

— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) August 30, 2019

Staff writer

As a plague of poverty sweeps across Iran, all but wiping out the middle class in its wake, the Iranian regime continues to try and blame the international community for Iran’s economic woes.

Years of economic mismanagement and corruption have hollowed out Iranian industries, caused rampant unemployment, and prompted rocketing inflation. Rather than cause Iran’s economic decline, the international community is finally holding the Iranian regime to account.

A Turning Tide

In early January, the EU introduced its first sanctions against the Iranian regime since the landmark JCPOA agreement. The new sanctions targeted a branch of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) as well as two senior officials.

Despite the new sanctions, many in the Iranian opposition, including the People’s Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (MEK), believe that without a full terrorist blacklisting of the MOIS and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the effect of any sanctions will be severely limited.

Although the sanctions are limited in scope, they do represent a changing tide in the mindset of European governments. For decades, the EU’s heads of state have stuck firmly to a policy of appeasement. But now, after a string of Iranian state-sponsored terror attacks plotted on European soil, France and Britain are leading the charge for a firmer stance against Iran.

Amongst the possible actions up for discussion are economic sanctions, asset freezes, and travel bans for senior figures in the Iranian regime.

A senior EU diplomat said, “we’d prefer not to take these measures, but they [the mullahs] need to stop trying to kill people on our territory.”

.@Maryam_Rajavi: The fact that gaining access to weapons of mass destruction, violations of human rights, export of fundamentalism, and terrorism are the four pillars of the theocratic regime ruling Iran.#IStandWithMaryamRajavi#FreeIran #MEK@SecPompeohttps://t.co/6JXTlKP0wE pic.twitter.com/ZwaII86ylA

— Iran Freedom (@4FreedominIran) January 21, 2019

In 2018, the Iranian regime plotted several terror attacks and assassinations against members of the MEK and other dissident groups living on European soil. Plots were unraveled in Albania, France, Denmark, and the US.

Albanian President Expresses Support for Expulsion of Iranian Regime Diplomats

The Poland Conference

The United States has organized a conference in Poland on the 13^th and 14^th of February in which the international community will discuss the Iranian threat. The foreign ministries from 90 countries across the globe will attend. International cooperation and support for a firmer stance against the regime are essential for curbing their nuclear ambitions and ending their campaign of terror on European soil.

The president-elect of the Iranian opposition, Maryam Rajavi, said,

“we have always urged western governments to be firm against the mullahs’ terrorist dictatorship. So, today, we urge them to expel the mercenaries of the mullahs’ intelligence services and the terrorist Qods force from the US and Europe.”

The MEK and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) have worked relentlessly to draw attention to the human rights abuses taking place across Iran. Ahead of the conference in Warsaw, the Iranian opposition will hold a major demonstration against the Iranian regime’s widespread abuse of human rights and employment of terrorism as a technique of repression.

Rajavi is convinced. She has spoken on the international stage and asserted that the only way to free the Iranian people from the violent and repressive clerical regime is through regime change. Following four failed terror attacks in Europe, any measure short of listing the MOIS and IRGC as terrorist organizations will fall well short of what is needed to eliminate the Iranian threat and bring stability to the Middle East and beyond.

Staff Writer

Patrick Kennedy, a former Democratic representative of the U.S. House of Representatives, gave a speech to members of the People’s Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (MEK) living in exile in Albania.

In the speech, he thanked Albania for being a kind and willing host to the Iranian opposition group and drew parallels between the two countries. “Anwar Khoja stole your country from you. Just as the mullahs have stolen Iran from the Iranian citizens”, he said.

Kennedy went on to address the recent surge in regime aggression against the MEK. He cited recent terrorist plots in Europe that targeted the opposition group, and the mullahs’ online misinformation campaign designed to turn public opinion against them.

.@PJK4brainhealth
The regime continues 2 spend Iran's wealth on sponsoring terrorism & it's proxies in the Mid-East
Thus the unfolding uprising is not only social restrictions & economic woes it's a clear expression of popular demand 4 a genuine democratic #IranRegimeChange@USUN pic.twitter.com/oqj8Cdy3TD

— Iran Freedom (@4FreedominIran) December 19, 2018

“Major social media companies like Twitter, Google, and Facebook have all in recent months, suspended and removed hundreds of fake accounts”, he said. Kennedy’s comments come just a few weeks after Twitter announced the removal and suspension of more than 770 regime-affiliated accounts.

A Reminder of the 80s and 90s

“Tehran-backed terrorist attacks in France, Albania, and Denmark were foiled by close cooperation between the police and the security and judicial authorities of several European countries”, he continued, adding that the foiled plots of 2018 were reminiscent of the regime’s violent campaign against dissidents in the 80s and 90s.

Although the attacks have been similar to those of the last century, the responses have not. Kennedy lamented that the West has not shown the same resolve and determination in opposition to the Iranian regime today.

The response to the 2018 attacks has been “very, very weak”, he said, “and inappropriate to the emerging threat” of the Iranian regime.

A Viable Opposition

Kennedy went on to suggest that the rationale behind the regime’s terror and misinformation campaigns was that the MEK represented a threat to its continued existence.

“It shows that the NCRI (the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the umbrella organization of the MEK) is a real force for change”, Kennedy said. He also cited the MEK’s president-elect Maryam Rajavi’s ten-point plan as a “viable roadmap for the people of Iran to establish a fair and free and democratic secular Republic of Iran in this crucial juncture in history”.

There are more signs of change on the horizon. Kennedy described how the majority of Iranians now live below the poverty line and corruption and unemployment are ravaging the Iranian economy.

This economic crisis is prompting more of the Iranian population to take to the street in protest. “People from various social strata are taking part in the nationwide protests”, Kennedy said. “Women, teachers, retirees, ordinary citizens who have lost their savings and pensions.”

The protests themselves have become more anti-regime in nature. Slogans like “down with the dictator, our enemy is right here”, and “death to Khamenei”, have become commonplace in Iran.

MEK, A Growing Opposition

Kennedy predicted that change in Iran is coming. “The mullahs do not know what they are up against”, he said, “right here are wonderful media laboratories that are helping to disseminate the true message of what’s going on in Iran”.

The regime’s routine human rights abuses are also beginning to earn it the attention of the international community. The UN General Assembly has adopted more than 60 resolutions condemning the regime’s actions.

There is an increasing voice calling for an investigation into the regime’s most heinous crime— the execution of 30,000 MEK members in 1988. A recent Amnesty International report called for an investigation into the incident and for those responsible in the Iranian leadership to be held to account.

The UN Must Investigate the 1988 Massacre

Kennedy concluded by saying, “it is amazing what you have built in a year, and it says to me something very hopeful. It says that if you could rebuild Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty and you could build Ashraf here in Albania, then it won’t be long before you’re going to build Ashraf in Tehran”.

Staff Writer

On August 6th, regime President Hassan Rouhani commented on the widespread protests that have taken place in cities across Iran this month. During his remarks, his hostility toward the MEK was evident when he said, “There is nothing wrong with the people’s protests … but it shouldn’t be like some people respond to a group(’s requests).”

The regime has now chosen to retaliate against the MEK for its role in helping to organize the recent protests by taking a number of measures to spy on the organization and to set the stage for future terrorist actions. The regime’s Supreme Security Council recently directed the Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS), the terrorist Quds Force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Intelligence and other agencies involved in the exportation of terrorism and fundamentalism to take the following actions against the MEK:

 

1. MOIS stations in Europe were ordered to utilize more resources in order to collect information about the movement and activities of MEK members in Europe.
2. The MOIS and Quds Force were directed to research the human, political, and technical potential for terrorists acts in Europe, particularly in Albania, using non-Iranian mercenaries. The goal would be to carry out terrorist acts against the MEK that could be attributed to either “internal conflicts of the Mojahedin [MEK]” or “natural incidents” and would not be traced back to the regime.
3. In an effort to control the damage done to the regime’s public image after terrorist plots were revealed in Albania (April) and France (July), MOIS agents and mercenaries abroad have been instructed to cooperate with the regime’s cultural advisors in Europe, the overseas directorate of the State Radio and Television, the Islamic Propaganda Organization and other relevant organizations in order to increase the scope and dimensions of the demonization campaign against the MEK. Agents will step up the production and dissemination of false information and fake documentaries, spreading disinformation for the Iranian regime under the cover of journalism. Non-Iranians “hirelings” will be used to spread this propaganda.
4. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Intelligence, and the Quds Force have all been ordered to petition European governments, particularly Albania, to curtail the Iranian Resistance and its activities. The plan is to achieve this task through talks with friendly “governments and parties” in Europe and the Balkans through political and economic relations.
5. The regime plans to dispatch its mercenaries and agents to Albania to pose as MEK family members. MOIS and Quds Force agents, along with some so-called non-governmental organizations, have been ordered to go to Albania in groups. The pretext is that they are “Family members of the Mojahedin,” and the strategy employed is the same as that used at Camp Ashraf and Liberty.

Staff Writer