بسمالله الرحمن الرحیم--Iran blacklists US officials for supporting ‘terrorist’ group MEK
Iran says the Americans provided deliberate support to a group that is accused of killing 17,000 Iranians over decades.
Maryam Rajavi, leader of the MEK, speaks at an event in Manza, Albania, alongside US officials [File: Florion Goga/Reuters]
Published On 16 Jul 202216 Jul 2022
Tehran, Iran – The Iranian government has blacklisted United States officials over their backing of a group that Tehran considers to be a “terrorist” organisation.
The Iranian foreign ministry on Saturday published a list of 61 current and former American officials who it said have provided “deliberate support” to the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), a group that openly calls for overthrowing the current Iranian establishment.
Several of the individuals, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, were previously blacklisted by the Iranian government for other reasons.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senators Ted Cruz and Cory Booker, and former National Security Adviser Lincoln Bloomfield were among the sanctioned individuals.
The individuals provided support to the group by participating in its events and “offering political and propaganda support”, the Iranian foreign ministry said.
The Iranian establishment believes the MEK has killed more than 17,000 Iranian people across decades, many of them women and children.
The MEK was among groups that supported Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979 that deposed dynastic rule, but it later became one of the main opponents of the clerical establishment and resorted to violence to thwart it.
The group has claimed responsibility for numerous assassinations and bombings in the early years following the revolution. It also aided Saddam Hussein in his eight-year invasion of Iran in the 1980s, and took up arms during the war.
The MEK was also listed as a “terrorist” organisation by the US and European Union, but was delisted more than 10 years ago after it promised to abandon violent operations.
