{"id":228538,"date":"2020-10-26T10:43:43","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T10:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=228538"},"modified":"2023-02-01T05:37:29","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T04:37:29","slug":"iran-regimes-terrorism-and-propaganda-go-hand-in-hand-and-both-must-be-shut-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-resistance\/iran-regimes-terrorism-and-propaganda-go-hand-in-hand-and-both-must-be-shut-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran Regime\u2019s Terrorism and Propaganda Go Hand-in-Hand, and Both Must Be Shut Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Despite the efforts by the Iranian regime and its apologists, there is a viable alternative to the mullahs\u2019 regime. In the first weeks of 2018, when the Iranian regime\u2019s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei acknowledged that the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI-MEK<\/a>), had played a leading role in organizing and facilitating the protests that comprised a nationwide uprising at the start of that year. Khamenei\u2019s remarks, along with his regime\u2019s terrorist attempts against the Iranian Resistance and ongoing campaign of disinformation, confirms MEK\u2019s leading role inside Iran.<\/p>\n

In addition, the global recognition of the Iranian Resistance has been growing, for a long time before that uprising began. This is evident from the large and politically diverse group of foreign dignitaries that appear each summer at the international rally organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI<\/a>). In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, this event was held online<\/a> in 2020. Several dozen American and European lawmakers delivered speeches to the live-streamed rally over the course of three days.<\/p>\n

Since summer, NCRI has held several online conferences which aimed to bring more international attention to some of Tehran\u2019s specific malign activities, while also urging the adoption of international policies that would better address those issues. To counter Resistance popularity both inside an outside of Iran, the Iranian regime has increased its demonizing campaign of the MEK and NCRI.<\/p>\n

In public, the clerical regime has always maintained that the PMOI<\/a> (MEK) is a \u201cgrouplet\u201d and poses no meaningful challenge to the mullahs\u2019 hold on power. That claim was arguably made plausible by the massacre<\/a> of political prisoners in 1988, at which time the PMOI comprised the vast majority of the estimated 30,000 victims. The regime has ever since continued oppressing members and supporters of the MEK. In fact, any connection with the MEK could lead to death.<\/p>\n

All the while, the MEK\u2019s support and its domestic activities have been expanding. That process culminated in the January 2018 uprising<\/a>, which in turn spawned a period that the opposition leader, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi<\/a>, referred to as a \u201cyear full of uprisings.\u201d In November 2019, the Iranian people rose up<\/a> against the regime on an even larger scale, with the MEK playing the leading role. In response, the regime launched the worst political violence since the time of the 1988 massacre. Approximately 1,500 peaceful protesters were shot dead<\/a> in a matter of days, and thousands were arrested.<\/p>\n

\"Weekly-Signe-up-logo-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In June 2018 the regime was still reeling from the uprising and fully in the midst of the ensuing, scattered protests. At the same time, the NCRI was planning its annual \u201cFree Iran<\/a>,\u201d rally in the Paris suburb of Villepinte. Recognizing the elevated symbolic value of that event under the circumstances, the Iranian regime made the \u201cFree Iran\u201d rally a target for its terrorism, disregarding the risks to its relations with European governments that were still committed to upholding the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, seemingly at any cost.<\/p>\n

The resulting bomb plot was fortunately disrupted before two Iranian sleeper agents could carry their explosive material from Belgium into France. Their arrest was soon followed by that of the plot\u2019s apparent mastermind, a high-ranking Iranian terrorist-diplomat who had been working out of the regime\u2019s embassy in Vienna. That terrorist-diplomat, Assadollah Assadi<\/a>, is now scheduled to face trial in Belgium. The regime\u2019s most recent terrorist plot was the focus an online conference Thursday that urged Western governments to use it as an opportunity to demand accountability not just from Assadi himself but also from the entire regime.<\/p>\n

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