Iran’s response to Giuliani’s pro-MEK op-ed

The counselor and head of the Press Office for the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations in New York, described the Rudy Giuliani’s warm embrace of the Mujahedin-e Khalq terrorist organization as “shocking and deplorable”.

Former Mayor of New York wrote an op-ed on May 7 which was published on Fox News. There, he described the MEK which is widely despised among Iranians as “the most organized Iranian opposition movement”. He also called the US government to “immediately airlift all the MEK” members out of Iraq.

In his op-ed published on May 9 on Fox News, Hamid Babaei wrote, “Journalists and think tanks across the world have sounded the alarm regarding the ‘cult-like’ practices of the MEK, such as forcing members to give up their children in order to dedicate more time to the cause, and their decades long reign of terror and brutality has been well established by many including the U.S. Department of State when it designated it as terrorist organization in 1997 while describing it as a ‘repressive cult despised by most Iranians and Iraqis.’”

He noted that the MEK managed to get itself removed from the US State Department list of terrorist organizations through “what the RAND Corp. called ‘cultic practices and its deceptive recruitment and public relations strategies’ as well as giving millions of dollars to politicians and lobbyists in Washington.”

“It also should be noted that this group supported Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war and played a major role in the violent crackdown on the civilian uprising in the early 90s while living in Iraq as a private militia for Saddam Hussein,” he added.

Babaei concluded that the people of Iraq despise MEK members and want them out.