{"id":227871,"date":"2020-10-14T18:49:36","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T17:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=227871"},"modified":"2023-02-01T05:39:49","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T04:39:49","slug":"iran-domestic-challenges-and-foreign-silence-leave-the-regime-feeling-vulnerable-but-emboldened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/blog\/op-ed\/iran-domestic-challenges-and-foreign-silence-leave-the-regime-feeling-vulnerable-but-emboldened\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran: Domestic Challenges and Foreign Silence Leave the Regime Feeling Vulnerable, but Emboldened"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheBy: Alejo Vidal-Quadras<\/strong><\/p>\n

Serious critics of Iran\u2019s theocratic regime have been warning for many years about the consequences of Western strategies that tend toward appeasement. Such strategies have a long history, dating back at least to the late 1980s when American and European leaders were eager to establish stable relations with an Iranian government that had survived eight years of war with neighboring Iraq. Their reluctance to alienate the Iranian regime ultimately led to all of those Western leaders turning a blind eye to what may have been the late 20th century\u2019s worst crime against humanity \u2013 a massacre<\/a> of 30,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988.<\/p>\n

That massacre and countless smaller-scale crackdowns on dissent over the past 32 years underscore the fact that the Iranian people stand to suffer the worst effects of Western appeasement. However, threats to Iran\u2019s domestic population often go hand-in-hand with threats to the regime\u2019s foreign adversaries. And if appeasement policies remain unchallenged within the halls of Western power, both categories of threat will only continue to get worse.<\/p>\n

If this was not clear from Iran\u2019s long history as both the most prolific abuser of the death penalty and the world\u2019s leading state sponsor of terrorism, it should have become clear two years ago when Iranian authorities tried to exploit their perceived impunity and harm the domestic Resistance movement by lashing out at its foreign base of support. While the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI-MEK)<\/a> \u2013 the main target of the 1988 massacre \u2013 continues to operate \u201cResistance Units<\/a>\u201d inside Iran, much of its leadership conducts organizing efforts from positions of exile in Albania and in France, where the MEK\u2019s parent coalition held international gatherings of expatriates and political supporters every summer between 2004 and 2018.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the National Council of Resistance of Iran moved its annual rally to a new compound<\/a> in Albania, and in 2020 it was moved online<\/a> as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The latest French rally very nearly ended in tragedy, as Iranian agents hatched a plan to attack it, which was thwarted through the coordination of several European intelligence services. A subsequent French investigation confirmed that the bomb plot had been approved at the highest levels of the Iranian regime. But this came as little surprise, given that the mastermind of that plot turned out to be a high-ranking Iranian diplomat, Assadollah Assadi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Iran news in brief, July 3, 2018<\/div><\/div>
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