Iranian Regime Confirms MEK Iran 's Role in Lordegan Protests

The Mullahs' regime has parked tanks at the entrance to the Lordegan city, central Iran, and law enforcement officials are constantly patrolling this insurgent city. The mullahs are afraid of a possible uprising, and officials have warned that the main Iranian opposition group, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK Iran, Mujahedin-e Khalq), has influenced the demonstrations.

The latest information on the revolt in Lordegan:

The people of the Iranian city of Isfahan protested Sunday in solidarity with the uprising of the people of Lordegan.

On October 6, residents of Lordegan protested the presence of the provincial governor of the regime and the head of the health department of Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari province and attacked their vehicle.

Protests were triggered after the news that at least 300 people, including children, had been infected with AIDS in Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari by health authorities using infected syringes.

Residents of Chennai Mahmoud village, Lordegan, reported that medical negligence throughout the local health care system was the cause of the epidemic. According to the local population, the individuals contracted HIV from needles used by the village health organization to screen for diabetes two months ago. The incident also affected residents of neighboring villages.

On October 5, thousands of Lordegan residents demonstrated against the mullahs' regime to support the residents of Chennai Mahmoudi village. Exhausted young people set the Supreme Leader's representative's office, Ali Khamenei, on fire in Lordegan's governor's office and several other centers of the regime.

The protest started outside the governor's office and spread to the local Ministry of Health office. Security forces attacked protesters in both locations. Protesters defended themselves by throwing stones. The repressive forces fired live ammunition and tear gas at the crowd to disperse it, injuring several protesters.

Protesters chanted: "Down with the dictator", "do not be afraid, we are all together", "neither Gaza nor Lebanon, I give my life for Iran" and "incompetent officials, resignation, resignation! “

In the city of Jolfa, in the province of Eastern Azerbaijan, in northwestern Iran, employees of the local gas pipeline company organized a rally in solidarity with the people of Lordegan. These workers held a large placard on which he was inscribed: "Chennai de Lordegan is not alone.”

As the protests intensified, the mullahs' regime officials emphasized the active presence and key role of the MEK Iran, Mujahedin-e Khalq in these demonstrations.

Ali-Mohammad Akbari, commander of the Qamar-Bani-Hashem Legion of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (Pasdaran) in the province, confirmed Saturday the role of the MEK Iran/Mujahedin-e Khalq. He showed once more that the regime feared this organization and its influence on the people. Akbari said: "The Monafeqin (the slanderous term of the regime used exclusively in reference to the MEK Iran) were present in recent riots. They covered their faces and guided the protesters, "the official Mehr news agency reported on 5 October.

Akbari's remarks once again show the fear of the mullahs' regime against the MEK Iran and the relentless efforts of the MEK Iran to overthrow this regime and bring freedom and democracy to Iran.

The young insurgents, militants of the MEK Iran, have played an active role in the conduct of the demonstrations against the theocratic regime, since the beginning of the national uprising, at the beginning of 2018. The militants of the MEK Iran play a key role to break the atmosphere of terror in Iran by burning the symbols of the regime and by hanging banners of the leaders of the Iranian Resistance throughout the country.

The mullahs' regime is afraid of a possible uprising led by the MEK Iran and has therefore resorted more to repression than an attempt to resolve the crisis in Lordegan.

In another repressive act, the mullahs' regime cut off the Internet to Lordegan's people with the aim to prevent news from the events being broadcast abroad. Several people were also arrested by the mullahs' intelligence and security forces.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), praised the people and youth of Lordegan.

"By chanting ‘Down with the dictator’ and denouncing the representative of the Supreme Leader of the Iranian regime, Ali Khamenei, they targeted the clerical authorities as to the main cause of all the atrocities perpetrated against the Iranian people," said Mrs. Rajavi, adding: "This corrupt and criminal regime has squandered Iran's national wealth, pursuing nuclear and missile projects and indulging in attacks abroad, which have destroyed every aspect of the life of the Iranian people, including health and well-being ".

Mrs. Rajavi urged all young people, especially those in Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari province and neighboring areas, to support the protesters and victims of the cruel policy of the mullahs' regime.

The Main Democratic Opposition in Iran After 50 Years

On September 6, the Iranian opposition satellite network Simay-e-Azadi (IranNTV) issued the election ceremony of the members of the new leadership of the main Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujahidin Organization of Iran, PMOI (Mujahedin-e Khalq, MEK). The new entity called "Central Council" is composed of one hundred women, who are part of the organization.

The news network, issued detailed videos of the ceremony for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI, MEK Iran).

The election of the Central Council of the Mujahedin-e Khalq indicates a new expansion in the Iranian Resistance’s campaign to overthrow the fundamentalist dictatorship that governs Iran. An important characteristic of this institution is that it includes young women born after the 1970 revolution. This has a particularly effective message for young Iranians to intensify their fight against the mullahs.

Regime Intelligence Minister Cites MEK Arrests in Atempt to Boost Flagging Morale

On April 19th, Mullah Mahmoud Alavi, the regime’s Minister of Intelligence, made an appearance at Friday prayers in Tehran in which he attempted to raise morale of the country’s military forces in light of the recent designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the United States. The designation carries significant economic and political consequences for a regime that is already facing crises from all sides.

Arrests of Mujahedin-e Khalq Members
Alavi focused his remarks on the regime’s suppression of the MEK during the last year in the Iranian calendar (March 21, 2018 to March 20, 2019), saying that during this time “116 teams related to the Mujahedin-e Khalq [MEK Iran] have been dealt with.” He confusingly referred to these suppressive acts as “intelligence epic” and said that the ministry’s actions were due to “major national security reviews in light of Khamenei’s breakthrough guidelines.”

Alavi insisted that these achievements were carried out through Khamenei’s tailoring and said that the details of the suppressive acts should be shared with the public through “national media.” The regime’s state-run media have become widely distrusted by the Iranian people, who view the mullahs’ news agencies as propaganda. It is common for protesters to chant, “Our shame, our shame, our radio, and TV!” Regime leaders have expressed frustration at their inability to stop people from turning to the Internet and social media for unfiltered news.

The Minister of Intelligence has not officially released the true number of Mujahedin-e Khalq members arrested during the last Iranian calendar year. He intentionally omitted arrests made by the regime’s other suppressive agencies, such as the

IRC Intelligence Organization, IRGC Intelligence Protection Organization, State Security Forces (SSF) and the Prosecutor’s Office.

Alavi’s choice to focus on the MEK is in keeping with the regime’s strategy of placing the blame for the FTO designation or IRGC on the resistance organization.

Maryam Rajavi’s Statement
After Alavi’s Remarks on Friday, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), released a statement calling for the immediate release of MEK political prisoners in Oran. She called on the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the High Commissioner and the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, and international human rights organizations to form delegations to visit the regime’s prisons and meet with the prisoners and to take immediate action to secure their release. She emphasized that the prisoners are subject to torture and execution. Mrs. Rajavi further demanded that the regime publish the names of all of those who have been arrested and honor their rights in accordance with the international conventions it has adopted.

Confronting Iran

The reason why the main Iranian opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq has survived for so long is precisely because it has support inside Iran.

Consider the evidence:

Number one: In July 1988, Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, was compelled to “drink the cup of poison” and agree to a cease-fire with Iraq, after having sacrificed the lives of almost 1 million Iranians. Concerned about the vulnerability of his regime to public unrest, the Supreme Leader ordered the cold-blooded murder of 30,000 MEK Iran members who were being held in regime prisons.

Over the course of four months, from June through September 1988, the Iranian state was transformed into a vast killing machine—executing thousands in a single day. In fact, Iran’s current judiciary chief—Ebrahim Raisi—served on the “death commission” that sent many of these prisoners to the death.

So, as recently as twenty years ago, the Iranian regime was sufficiently concerned about the Mujahedin-e Khalq’s power inside Iran to summarily execute 30,000 of its followers.

Number two: Since December 2017, the government of Iran has been facing unprecedented waves of protests throughout the country. Iranians from all classes, social backgrounds, age demographics from every one of the country’s thirty-one provinces have been engaged in demonstrations against clerical rule. Students, merchants, truck drivers, young and old, educated and illiterate have called for an end to the Iranian revolution, which has brought them little beyond isolation, privation and corruption.

Video evidence from inside Iran shows that many of these protestors are Mujahedin-e Khalq supporters. They hang pictures of Maryam Rajavi, the head of the MEK Iran’s parent organization, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) from highway overpasses. They parade with signs condemning the regime and endorsing the MEK in front of mosques and major squares in Tehran, Isfahan, Mashhad, Shiraz and even Qom, the seat of mullahs’ power. These people are putting their lives on the line. They know that if caught, they and their family members will be arrested, tortured and—some at least—probably executed. Yet despite the risk, they persist. These are not the actions of paid shills.

Number three: A group that has no support within Iran would not merit such attention.

Over the past several years, Iran’s state-run media has produced a total of nineteen movies, series, and documentaries—some of them consisting of up to twenty-eight segments of thirty to forty-five minutes each—that demonize the Mujahedin-e Khalq. In 2018 alone, eighteen major books were published by the regime against the MEK Iran. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei excoriated the Mujahedin-e Khalq by name at least four times. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has directly blamed the MEK for organizing public protests. In January 2018, when the protests in Iran were at their height, Rouhani personally phoned French president Emmanuel Macron and asked him to limit the activities of MEK Iran in France. Macron refused.

Free and Democratic Iran

Last year, the Iranian-American communities in the U.S. held a conference in New York. A number of political dignitaries from the United States and Europe attended and addressed the conference called, “The Path to Freedom – The Alternative.” In a video message to this meeting, Maryam Rajavi elaborated on the rapid developments in Iran, with the looming prospect of a secular country free from religious tyranny. Here is what the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) President-elect had to say:

Distinguished personalities and Members of Iranian communities in the United States,
You have organized a gathering that glows with unyielding resolve to secure a free Iran. Such gatherings around the world, added to the popular base of this resistance in Iran, in and of themselves manifest the roadmap for freedom and democracy in Iran.

Today, I would like to briefly talk about the path to freedom and the Iranian Resistance's platform for the future of Iran.
Accelerating developments in Iran enhance the prospects of an Iran free of religious tyranny. Since the uprising of December 2017, Iranian society has essentially not stopped marching and protesting. In August, at least 27 cities in Iran rose up once again. The regime arrested over 1,000 protestors but failed to stop the protest movements across Iran. As the Iranian Resistance’s leader Massoud Rajavi has said: "This is an uprising until overthrow and until victory. ... It will persist, it will spread, and it will deepen. It is linked with and relies on, the organized resistance. And the inhuman enemy has no solutions or options to escape from it."

Today, the ruling mullahs’ fear is amplified by the role of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and resistance units in leading and continuing the uprisings. Regime analysts say: "The definitive element in relation to the December 2017 riots is the organization of rioters. So-called Units of Rebellion have been created, which have both the ability to increase their forces and the potential to replace leaders on the spot."

The roadmap for freedom reveals itself in these very uprisings, in ceaseless protests, and in the struggle of the Resistance Units.
At the same time, the regime is surrounded - politically and internationally, and in economic terms, it is on the brink of collapse. Over the past 12 months, the national currency has lost two-thirds of its value. Today, the regime has reached a point where its factions publicly threaten their president with physical elimination.

I want to stress the path we have chosen and the horizon ahead of us as we strive to reach the Iranian people's grand destination.

We seek popular sovereignty. We are fighting for the establishment of a republic based on the vote of the people. We consider the people's free vote to be the sole criterion of legitimacy for national officials.

We stress human rights in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and in accordance with conventions adopted by the United Nations.

Mujahedin-e Khalq

The Mujahedin-e Khalq, or People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (abbreviated MEK, PMOI or MKO), is an Iranian political organization in exile that advocates for the overthrow of the current government in Iran. It was founded by three Iranian students affiliated with the Freedom Movement of Iran, but it has long been led jointly by husband-and-wife team Massoud and Maryam Rajavi.