Tasnim News, Tehran, January 23 2021:… The US officials have, furthermore, supported suppressive regimes in the region and their crimes against humanity and war crimes in Yemen, maintained active and full connection with the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group and provided it with political and cultural support, paving the way for several terrorist measures against the interests of the Iranian government and nation, Khatibzadeh added. Iran Sanctions American Officials Connected To Mujahedin-e-Khalq
The MEK’s dirty past includes the anti-Imperialist inspired murder of six Americans in pre-revolution Iran which it later celebrated in songs and publications
Iran Sanctions American Officials Connected To Mujahedin-e-Khalq
Iran Imposes Sanctions on Trump, Other Top US Officials
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran slapped sanctions on outgoing US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo along with several current and former members of the outgoing administration for their role in terrorist and inhumane actions against the Islamic Republic and Iranian citizens.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry “added a number of American individuals to its sanctions list for committing terrorist crimes, promoting and supporting terrorism, which is a serious threat to regional and international peace and security, and for violating basic rules and fundamental principles of international law, including human rights,” Saeed Khatibzadeh, the ministry’s spokesman, said on Tuesday.
He said Iran’s measure was taken under a law titled “Countering America’s Human Rights Violation and Adventurous and Terrorist Actions” passed by the Iranian Parliament in 2017.
He said the sanctioned officials include Trump, Pompeo, former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, CIA Director Gina Haspel, former national security adviser John Bolton, former US envoy for Iran Brian Hook and his successor Elliot Abrams, and chief of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Andera Gacki.
The spokesperson added that Iran placed sanctions on the US officials for their involvement in the assassination of top Iranian anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and his companions in Iraq in January 2020, management of and support for acts of terror against the Islamic Republic, and creating, financing and training terrorist groups and providing them with weapons.
Tectonic Shift In World Order After Unforced Error By Trump (First Published Jan 09 2020)
He said the US officials have been blacklisted for their full support for the Israeli regime’s acts of aggression against the Palestinian people, particularly the regime’s terrorist move to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
Mossad Used Mujahedin-e-Khalq MEK for Assassination of Fakhrizadeh
They have also been targeted for imposing cruel, illegal and unilateral sanctions on Iran and acting deliberately to create “specific living conditions for Iranians” by blocking their access to food, medicine, medical services and equipment, the official said.
The US officials have, furthermore, supported suppressive regimes in the region and their crimes against humanity and war crimes in Yemen, maintained active and full connection with the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group and provided it with political and cultural support, paving the way for several terrorist measures against the interests of the Iranian government and nation, Khatibzadeh added.
Based on principles of international law, imposing unilateral sanctions and unilateral bullying measures are either a clear violation of the fundamental principles of the international law mentioned in the United Nations Charter or run counter to humanitarian international law, which would prevent the materialization of human rights, he added.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves its right to adopt the necessary strategies to counter America’s international criminal acts in all fields,” the Iranian spokesman said.
He said Iran’s Foreign Ministry would issue a detailed statement about these American officials’ crimes as soon as possible.
In April 2019, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) slammed the US government as “supporter of terrorism,” designating American forces in West Asia, known as the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), as a “terrorist organization.”
The top Iranian security council said the designation came as a “reciprocal measure” against Trump’s “illegal and unwise” move to blacklist Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization.
Iran Sanctions American Officials Connected To Mujahedin-e-Khalq
***
(Iraq shelters terrorist groups including the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), which has used terrorist violence against Iran and in the 1970s was responsible for killing several U.S. military personnel and U.S. civilians)
Also read:
https://iran-interlink.org/wordpress/american-regime-and-mek-terrorists-not-human-rights-advocates/
American Regime and MEK Terrorists Not Human Rights Advocates ; Iran
Financial Tribune, March 15 2020:… “A regime whose president proudly issues the order to assassinate the most decent children of Iran, and his accomplices … shamelessly host the most hated anti-Iran terrorist groups and attend their meetings, has nothing to do with the elevated concept of human rights,” the spokesman was quoted as saying by IRNA. Mousavi was referring to the US assassination of the Middle East’s most prominent anti-terror commander, General Qasem Soleimani, and American support for the MKO group that Washington has removed from its list of terrorist organizations only to spite Tehran. American Regime and MEK Not Human Rights Advocates
Pompeo Set To Back The Wrong Group Again (MEK, Rajavi cult)
American Regime and MEK Terrorists Not Human Rights Advocates ; Iran
American Officials Connected To Mujahedin-e-Khalq
Iran rejected the US State Department’s annual report on its human rights situation, saying Washington is in no position to issue human rights prescription for other countries.
In a statement on Friday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Washington lacks any political, legal and ethical eligibility to comment about the issue of human rights.
“A regime whose president proudly issues the order to assassinate the most decent children of Iran, and his accomplices … shamelessly host the most hated anti-Iran terrorist groups and attend their meetings, has nothing to do with the elevated concept of human rights,” the spokesman was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Mousavi was referring to the US assassination of the Middle East’s most prominent anti-terror commander, General Qasem Soleimani, and American support for the MKO (Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization -MEK) group that Washington has removed from its list of terrorist organizations only to spite Tehran.
The spokesman said the US, whose president “recklessly makes racist remarks, shamelessly defends religious discrimination, degrades women and considers them solely as an object of sexual pleasure, denies entry to the people of other countries into the US solely based on their religion and race, recklessly threatens to destroy the cultural centers of other countries, backs the murderous Saudi regime and the anti-human Zionist regime, is not in a position to offer human rights recipes to other countries.”
Mousavi said such reports are based on a series of lies, distortion of realities, exaggeration of weak points and blackwashing of positive points, hence they have no value and credibility.
His comments came in reaction to the US State Department’s annual review of human rights situation in Iran, which was released on March 11, 2020.
In the report, the US State Department claimed that the Islamic Republic had committed abuse “as a matter of government policy”, with impunity for perpetrators “throughout all levels of the government and security forces”.
The UN Human Rights Council, however, on Thursday adopted a report that profusely praised the Islamic Republic following a mandatory human rights review that all UN member states undergo every five years.
According to a UN Watch count, 95 out of 111 countries, or 85%, praised Iran for its human rights achievements.
This included 49 countries that glowingly praised the Islamic Republic and another 46 that expressed some praise for Iran’s achievements.
Only a small minority of 16 nations used their brief speaking time to raise allegations against Iran’s human rights record.
American Regime and MEK Terrorists Not Human Rights Advocates ; Iran
***
Brian Hook Met MKO Rep. Before And After Soleimani’s Assassination
Press TV, February 13 2020:… The United States’ point man on Iran met with a representative of the anti-Iran Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group both before and after Washington’s assassination of senior Iranian commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, a report says. Brian Hook, the US’s special representative for Iran and senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, held the meetings with Robert G. Joseph, who represents the so-called National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in September 2019 and on January 31, American news and opinion website The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday. On its website, the NCRI calls itself the MKO’s “umbrella coalition,” but many consider the two to be synonymous. Brian Hook Met MKO Rep. Before And After Soleimani’s Assassination
Brian Hook Met MKO Rep. Before And After Soleimani’s Assassination
Brian Hook, the US special representative for Iran and senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
The United States’ point man on Iran met with a representative of the anti-Iran Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group both before and after Washington’s assassination of senior Iranian commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, a report says.
Brian Hook, the US’s special representative for Iran and senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, held the meetings with Robert G. Joseph, who represents the so-called National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in September 2019 and on January 31, American news and opinion website The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday.
On its website, the NCRI calls itself the MKO’s “umbrella coalition,” but many consider the two to be synonymous.
Joseph referred to the meetings in a semi-annual report he filed with the US Justice Department earlier this week in line with the US’s Foreign Agent Registration Act.
The US assassinated General Soleimani, the former commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and a number of others in a set of drone strikes targeting Baghdad’s civilian airport on January 3.
General Soleimani, who had earned reputation as the region’s most popular anti-terror military figure, was on an official visit to the Iraqi capital when the attack took place.
Joseph, a former senior State Department official under President George W. Bush, advises the NCRI at $15,000 a month. Relentlessly an Iran hawk, Joseph told a meeting of the group last March that he hoped that the Iranian government would soon fall.
The MKO has conducted a litany of assassinations and bombings against Iranian officials and civilians since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It notoriously sided with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during Iraq’s Western-backed war of 1980-88 against the Islamic Republic.
Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist assaults since the Revolution’s victory, about 12,000 have fallen victim to the MKO’s acts of terror.
The terrorist outfit was on the US’s list of terrorist organizations until 2012.
Many other Western states have crossed its name out on their blacklists, too. The NCRI has its headquarters in Paris, which also serves as the venue for the MKO’s annual conferences.
The group throws lavish conferences every year in the French capital, with certain American, Western, and Saudi Arabian officials in attendance as guests of honor. These include former US national security advisor John Bolton, US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, and former Saudi Arabian spy chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal.
Also in January, Giuliani told The Daily Beast that General Soleimani had been “directly responsible for killing some of my MEK (MKO) people,” adding, “We don’t like him very much.”
Evidence once showed that Bolton had received a $40,000 “speaking fee” to address an annual MKO gathering.
Today the world's catching on to @AmbJohnBolton’s chronic warmongering. But Iranians didn’t need to read a 10,000 word @NewYorker profile to be convinced: we've seen him shill for a cult terror group, and—along with his #B_Team accomplices—target Iranians with #EconomicTerrorism. pic.twitter.com/8n0UHyXOyq
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) April 30, 2019
The NCRI hailed General Soleimani’s assassination in a blog post following the airstrikes.
Shortly after the US airstrikes, Pompeo circulated a memo to all American embassies barring “direct US government engagement with” MKO’s representatives, citing its controversial history, including alleged role in the assassination of three US army officers and three civilian contractors, The Daily Beast said.
He, however, walked back from the warning later, leaving the door open to such engagement. “Posts should welcome opportunities to meet with and learn from members of the Iranian diaspora community,” he advised American diplomats in a cable overriding the memo.
Pompeo himself spoke at an event that included MKO representatives last year.
End
Brian Hook Met MKO Rep. Before And After Soleimani’s Assassination
American Officials Connected To Mujahedin-e-Khalq
***
Also read:
Tehran Times, Tasnim News, Mehr News and IRNA, December 23 2020:… Referring to the European Parliament’s request to Iran to receive a special rapporteur, he said “It is not necessary to travel to Iran to observe human rights violations. It is enough to walk in the corridors of the European Parliament to see terrorists whose hands are stained with the… American Officials Connected To Mujahedin-e-Khalq
Iran Interlink, December 20 2020:… Speaking of the MEK’s regime change agenda disappearing, there is evidence that the MEK itself is disappearing from relevance. A Tweet by a person identifying himself as a retired Israeli Defence Forces soldier purports to expose new construction activity in Iran linked to nuclear activity. This got recycled by Associated Press which claims Iran has… American Officials Connected To Mujahedin-e-Khalq
Fars News, December 13 2020:… Amir Arjmand had a destructive role in post-election unrests of 2009 in Iran. Thanks to his brother’s high rank in the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, NCRI or PMOI), Amir Arjmand escaped to Iraqi Kurdistan and there he met with French security agents who took him to Paris. About the status… American Officials Connected To Mujahedin-e-Khalq
Mazda Parsi, Nejat Society, December 10 2020:… The MEK’s malicious attitudes can always be a big obstacle in normalizing and stabilizing relation between nations. That is why the President Biden’s ex-adviser on Middle East affairs, Daniel Benaim suggests the US’s next administration to relocate the MEK in Ethiopia or somewhere on the shores of the Red Sea in order to… American Officials Connected To Mujahedin-e-Khalq
Reese Erlich, The progressive, December 07 2020:… According to professor Marandi, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) is suspected of having actually killed Fakhrizadeh. “The MEK works with the United States and Israel,” he says. “Teams from MEK have been involved in the past.” From 2007-12, Israel used the MEK to carry out sophisticated assassinations of five nuclear scientists inside Iran, as reported in the Christian…
Fars News, Tehran, December 04 2020:…”Certainly, Monafeqin (hypocrites as MKO members are called in Iran) have played a role and certainly, the Zionist regime and Mossad are the criminal mastermind of this incident,” he added. Early in 2018, the Israeli sources had acknowledged that Mossad had tried to assassinate an Iranian nuclear scientist, but its operation failed. According to Fars…
Olsi Jazexhi interviews Yakub Meraji in France, December 01 2020:… Olsi Jazexhi talks to MEK defector Yakub Meraji. In the past days Mr. Meraji has filed a complain with French police against MEK activities in France. He claims that MEK misuse the French state in order to take humanitarian aid and use it to fund their jihadi camp in Albania.…
Gjergji Thanasi, Ashraf News, (Translated by Iran Interlink) November 30 2020:… In conditions where there is reasonable suspicion and indications are that the murder of Dr Fakhrizadeh involves not just the finger, but also the hand of the MEK (so it is practically proven that the MEK has not given up terrorism such as the killing of high-profile characters), it…
Press TV, Tehran, November 30 2020:… Shamkhani said “electronic devices” were used to remotely assassinate the scientist. “No individual was present at the site,” he said. “The mastermind of this action is revealed to us, and the [MKO) hypocrites have definitely played a role; the criminal element in this act is the Zionist regime and the Mossad,” he said. The…
Trita Parsi, Responsible Statecraft, November 28 2020:… Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a key Iranian nuclear official, has been assassinated in Tehran. Some Iranian reports claim it was a suicide attack, which would reduce the likelihood of Israeli operatives carrying out the attack, but the bullet holes in Fakhrizadeh’s car cast doubt on that. Israel has in the past, however, used operatives from…
Ted Snider, Mondoweiss, October 27 2020:… Two senior officials in the Obama administration told NBC news that the assassinations were carried out by the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK), an Iranian opposition group that spent many years on America’s terrorist list. They also alleged that the MEK was “financed, trained, and armed” by Israeli intelligence. In Iran, as in Iraq before it, assassinations proved…
Iran Front Page, October 20 2020:… The Islamic Republic of Iran considers the arrest of Mr Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat in Europe, as a move that is basically unlawful and in blatant violation of international practices and the contents of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” Khatibzadeh said. Assadi, who will go on trial in late November, was…