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Sleeping forces stir in
Iran
Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - With most Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK -
People's Mujahideen) members now released from detention
in France, and the case against its still-held leader,
Maryam Rajavi, seemingly weak, the furor raised by the
surprise crackdown of the French authorities on the
exiled Iranian opposition group is dying down.
Indeed, some people are already dismissing the
action against the MEK - the military arm of the
National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)- as a
political ploy by French Interior Minister Nicolas
Sarkozy to score some points in his reported attempt to
run for the premiership.
The MEK has in the past
committed acts of terrorism inside Iran from sanctuaries
provided by the former regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
The MEK was driven out of Iran in 1986 in the wake of a
vicious power struggle following the 1979 Islamic
revolution. It is a designated foreign terrorist
organization by the United States, the European Union
and Iran, among others, but the French for many years
turned a blind eye to its presence on their soil. As an
outlawed outfit, US intelligence agencies are banned
from having any contact with it. However, following the
ousting of Saddam, the US has established contact with
MEK elements in Iraq and West Europe for possible use
against the Teheran regime.
While the MEK may be
fading from the news in France, it is set to bounce back
in the political mainstream of Iran and it is sharpening
its knives for a possible encounter with the Iranian
fundamentalist clergy.
Sources in Pakistani
counter-intelligence confirm that the MEK has seized on
the recent pro-reform student demonstrations in Tehran
to re-establish itself as a force within Iran. The
official Iranian press even reported Tehran's chief
prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi as saying that some of those
arrested during the unrest in Tehran and other cities
were members of the MEK. However, he did not say how
many members of the outlawed group - which he described
as "hypocrites" - had been apprehended.
The
sources say that the Iranian authorities have now
pinpointed the MEK, and massive raids have been
conducted against them in the cities of Mashhad,
Zahedan, Isphan, Kozistan and Tehran. This has resulted
in a number of people trying to cross over the eastern
border into Pakistan.
According to records at
the Taftan border post, on last Saturday alone, 151
Iranians, most of them from Sistan province close to
Pakistan (the hub of the MEK in the past) were caught as
they tried to enter Pakistan without visas. Most of them
were wanted by the Iranian government, some in
connection with criminal activities.
Despite
tough measures by Iranian forces, which pushed many of
them into exile in Iraq and Europe, especially France,
the MEK survived within Iran. Iraqi satellite television
played a pivotal role during the time of Saddam as it
regularly broadcast features and programs in Persian in
support of the MEK into Iran. At the same time, the
porous border between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan
also helped the MEK to travel in and out of Iran to keep
its contacts alive.
With the student
demonstrators lacking natural national leaders and the
movement yet to develop into a broader reform protest,
Iran lacks an organized anti-fundamentalist force that
could lead and translate widespread public
dissatisfaction into a popular street protest.
It is this vacuum that the MEK, and its front
organization, the National Council of Resistance of
Iran, will endeavor to fill. The dilemma for the US is,
does it keep the MEK on its terror list, or does it
acknowledge the organization as the best available
conduit to promote political change in Iran?
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All
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