{"id":344312,"date":"2026-04-13T21:06:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T20:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=344312"},"modified":"2026-04-14T09:54:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T08:54:53","slug":"patriotism-or-betrayal-how-the-pmoi-prevented-deaths-and-destruction-during-the-iran-iraq-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-resistance\/patriotism-or-betrayal-how-the-pmoi-prevented-deaths-and-destruction-during-the-iran-iraq-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriotism or Betrayal:\u00a0How the PMOI Prevented Deaths and Destruction During the Iran-Iraq War\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"iran
Victorious female fighters of the National Liberation Army chant \u201cToday Mehran, tomorrow Tehran\u201d after liberating the strategic border city of Mehran on June 18, 1988<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Five-minute read<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In an interview aired on April 11, 2026, by the Voice of America\u2019s Persian-language program \u201cOmgheh Meydan<\/a>,\u201d Fahimeh Khezrheidari interviewed Mohammad Mohaddessin, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), who underscored a fundamental principle of the Iranian Resistance: the liberation of Iran will come through the Iranian people and their organized resistance.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During the broadcast, the moderator pointedly questioned the PMOI\u2019s historical relationship with the former Iraqi government, asking whether the organization had effectively sided with Iraq during the conflict.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the interview, Mohaddessin stated that the PMOI\/MEK\u2019s record\u00a0regarding\u00a0Iraq is \u201cclear and honorable.\u201d He said that from the very first day Iraq occupied Iranian soil, the PMOI opposed that occupation in practice, not just in words. According to him, PMOI members fought Iraqi forces inside Iran, suffered casualties, and had prisoners of war who were released only years later. He also said that despite this, the regime itself moved against PMOI members even at the war fronts and tried to remove them from the front lines.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mohaddessin further argued that the decisive turning point came when Iraqi forces withdrew from Iranian territory after the liberation of Khorramshahr in June 1982. From that moment on, he said, there was no longer any patriotic or defensive justification for the continuation of the war, and that was precisely the moment when peace should have been accepted.\u00a0He argued that had the regime accepted a ceasefire then, the overwhelming majority of the human losses that followed could have been avoided.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Pezeshkian admits: PMOI rushed to defend Iran against Iraq in 1980, but regime blocked them.<\/div><\/div>
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