Three-minute read
For decades, Western capitals have clung to a comforting but catastrophic delusion: that the clerical dictatorship of Iran—the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism—can be managed, contained, or gradually reformed through engagement, sanctions relief, and diplomatic niceties. This illusion has not merely shaped policy; it has produced a sustained campaign of marginalization, smear, and selective enforcement against the one Iranian opposition force that refuses to play by the regime’s rules: the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK/PMOI) the main constituent of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
The Regime’s Industrialized Smear Machine
The Iranian regime operates a documented, industrialized disinformation apparatus explicitly designed to erase the organized Resistance from the realm of legitimate alternatives. State media, the film industry, front NGOs, and a cyber army numbering in the tens of thousands flood global discourse with the same triad of labels: “cult,” “no popular support,” “terrorist relics.” Hundreds of books, dozens of films, and thousands of articles have been manufactured for this purpose. The goal is brutally simple: convince the world there is no viable alternative to the Iranian regime.
What makes this machinery effective is the receptive soil it finds in Western journalism and policy circles. Major outlets have repeatedly framed the MEK as “controversial,” or “questioned in legitimacy,” reframing stories about its past while laundering regime-sourced narratives into respectable discourse.
The pattern extends deeply into Persian-language media ecosystems—both diaspora-based and Western-funded outlets.
More fundamentally, the regime’s intelligence apparatus has inserted elements into media, think tanks, government advisory circles, and human-rights organizations in Western capitals. In the past decade, after the illusion of internal reform collapsed, it launched a project to elevate Reza Pahlavi and remnants of the fallen monarchy. The goal: channel public discontent toward a figure who poses no threat to the regime, possesses no organized network inside Iran, promises to preserve the regime’s core institutions (including the IRGC, Basij, and intelligence agencies), refuses to break with the crimes of the previous dictatorship, and stakes everything on foreign military intervention and bombing.
periodic reminder on role of Iran's embassies from Ali Fallahian, regime’s former Intel Minister@eu_eeas @JosepBorrellF how long do you plan to allow the Iranian regime to carryout its terror plots abroad?#ShutDownIranTerrorEmbassiespic.twitter.com/nSTS6RS86i
— Zolal Habibi (@Ashrafi4ever) May 9, 2021
The Crumbling False Narrative: Executions in Iran
Yet this carefully constructed illusion is now cracking under the weight of undeniable reality. In March and April 2026, the regime executed multiple MEK members and political prisoners—including Mohammad Taghavi, Akbar Daneshvarkar, Babak Alipour, Pouya Ghobadi, Vahid Bani Amerian, Abolhassan Montazer, Hamed Validi, and Mohammad Massoum-Shahi—in a desperate bid to crush dissent. These were not faceless ideologues but individuals from all walks of life and every age group: architects, engineers, legal experts, and everyday Iranians.
Footage smuggled out of Ghezel Hesar Prison shows them standing firm in the execution yard, singing defiant anthems of resistance—“the tyrant’s throne will shatter” and “I have sworn to overthrow the tyrant with my blood”—moments before their deaths. Their courage, broadcast worldwide, has ignited rallies across Europe and among Iranian communities, exposing the regime’s fear and shredding the long-peddled lie of “no support.”
Sentiment on platforms like X reflects a growing consensus inside and outside Iran: the executions have only amplified calls for decisive action to destroy the regime entirely. The organized resistance, far from marginal, is visibly organizing defiance through Resistance Units even amid repression. This footage and the martyrs’ unyielding commitment are jeopardizing the entire false narrative, proving that the MEK commands deep, cross-generational loyalty among those willing to pay the ultimate price.
Ruhollah Mo'men Nasab, parliamentary special advisor on the so-called "internet users projection bill" and former commander of the cyber army reveals how #Tehran has been using @Twitter for #propaganda.
#Iran #InternetFreedom pic.twitter.com/kHzjtlEFvR— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) March 29, 2022
Devastating Consequences for Iran and the World
The policy born of this illusion has exacted a terrible toll. Inside Iran, it has prolonged a climate of fear and fragmentation, discouraging unified resistance by branding the most structured opposition as illegitimate. Public opinion—shaped by relentless propaganda and the absence of balanced coverage—has been steered toward cynicism, delaying the coalescence of mass defiance. For the regime, this has extended its lifespan far beyond what its own failures and the people’s discontent would otherwise allow, buying time through division rather than strength.
Globally, the consequences are equally dire. Western decision-makers, influenced by the “fragmented and controversial” framing, have pursued cautious engagement and hostage diplomacy instead of strategic support for organized change. This has emboldened Tehran’s terrorism, nuclear ambitions, and domestic brutality, while sidelining the only force capable of delivering a secular, democratic transition. The result is not stability but a self-reinforcing cycle: regime survival through narrative control, at the expense of Iranian lives and regional security.
One need not endorse the MEK to recognize the deeper moral failure. Imagine, for a moment, that the Allies in the 1940s had treated the French Resistance or other anti-Nazi networks the same way: amplifying Gestapo-sourced smears, foregrounding early militant episodes, and refusing to back any single organized alternative lest it complicate negotiations with Berlin. The analogy is imperfect, yet it exposes the ethical bankruptcy of a policy that prioritizes illusory coexistence with evil over solidarity with those risking everything to end it.