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.