Tehran Friday prayer leader blasts West for trying to revive MKO

Rasa - Tehran’s provisional Friday Prayers Leader, Ayatollah Khatami, strongly blasted the western countries for their efforts to empower the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as the MEK, PMOI and NCR) terrorist group.

News ID: 422803

Date: 19 August 2016 - 18:36

RNA - Addressing a large and fervent congregation of the people on Tehran University campus on Friday, Ayatollah Ayatollah Sayyed Ahmad Khatami said, "Certain governments are chanting the slogan of campaign against terrorism, but are supporting the MKO, indicating that their agenda is not human rights and confronting terrorism."

Ayatollah Khatami said that the MKO has the darkest record before the Iranian nation as the terrorist group has carried out 17,000 assassinations against the innocent people as part of its criminal record.

In relevant remarks in late July, Deputy Chief of Staff of Iran's Armed Forces Brigadier-General Masoud Jazayeri blasted France and Saudi Arabia for their support for MKO, and said both countries should account for any possible terrorist attack in Iran in future.

"(France's) hosting of Monafeqin (the hypocrites as the MKO members are called in Iran) grouplet as one of the most dangerous and criminal terrorist groups in the world and the presence of the western and Arab figures at their meeting shows these countries' support for terrorism," Jazayeri said.

He referred to the participation of former Saudi General Intelligence Directorate (GID) Chief Turki al-Faisal in the MKO's annual gathering in Paris earlier this month, and said his demand for terrorist operations and measures against the Revolution and the Islamic Republic is an issue which cannot be ignored easily.

"The finger of accusation will be pointed at Riyadh and Paris in case of possible terrorist acts in Iran," Jazayeri underlined.

The MKO, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets.

The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly-established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran's new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, Prime Minister, Mohammad-Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad-Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by the MKO members in 1981.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shi'ite and Kurd uprisings in the country.

The terrorist group joined Saddam's army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.

Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who argued for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.

The US formally removed the MKO from its list of terror organizations in early September, one week after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent the US Congress a classified communication about the move. The decision made by Clinton enabled the group to have its assets under the US jurisdiction unfrozen and do business with the American entities, the State Department said in a statement at the time.

In September 2012, the last groups of the MKO terrorists left Camp Ashraf, their main training center in Iraq's Diyala province. They have been transferred to Camp Liberty. Hundreds of the MKO terrorists have now been sent to Europe, where their names were taken off the blacklist even two years before the US.

The MKO has assassinated over 12,000 Iranians in the last 4 decades. The terrorist group had even killed large numbers of Americans and Europeans in several terror attacks before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Some 17,000 Iranians have lost their lives in terror attacks in the 35 years after the Revolution.

Rumors were confirmed on Saturday about the death of MKO ringleader, Masoud Rajavi, as a former top Saudi intelligence official disclosed in a gaffe during an address to his followers.

Rajavi's death was revealed after Turki al-Faisal who was attending the MKO annual gathering in Paris made a gaffe and spoke of the terrorist group's ringleader as the "late Rajavi" twice.

Faced with Faisal's surprising gaffe, Rajavi's wife, Maryam, changed her happy face with a complaining gesture and cued the interpreter to be watchful of translation words and exclude the gaffe from the Persian translation.

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