MEK supporters push for recognition by US as official Iranian opposition

Members of Congress and supporters of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) are to press the Obama administration to recognise it as the "legitimate opposition" to the Iranian government after the group is removed from the US list of banned terrorist organisations in the coming days.

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, delisted the MEK as a terrorist group on Friday following a well funded campaign to change the image of the group – which was banned in 1997 because of a history of killing Americans, assassinating Iranian politicians and violent support for Saddam Hussein – and portray it as Washington's ally in confronting Tehran.

The state department said it is not overlooking "the MEK's past acts of terrorism" and that it has "serious concerns about the MEK as an organisation, particularly with regard to allegations of abuse committed against its own members". But the group's renunciation of violence and "the absence of confirmed acts of terrorism by the MEK for more than a decade" had led to it being unbanned.

Critics say it is a marginal organisation with little popular support in Iran, even among opponents of the Islamic government. Its removal from the terrorism list is seen as a political move that may complicate negotiations over Tehran's nuclear programme and provide a pretext for a further crackdown against the opposition.

A group of 20 pro-MEK Iranian American groups in the US, some of which poured significant sums of money to donations to political campaigns and paying lobby firms to press the case for the group's unbanning on Capitol Hill, issued a statement praising the delisting.

"This action will liberate the largest peaceful, secular, pro-democratic Iranian dissident group from the constraints of US sanctions law and it represents a significant step by the Obama administration to promote a democratic and nuclear weapon-free Iran," they said.

MEK supporters and members of Congress at the forefront of the campaign to unban the organisation now want the Obama administration to back it as a spearhead to regime change in Tehran. The delisting will leave the group free to raise funds without concerns of breaching anti-terrorism laws and to shift the focus of its now considerable political support, which includes scores of members of Congress and former top officials including ex-directors of the FBI and CIA, toward its campaign to topple the present government in Iran.

A Texas congressman, Bob Filner, who has been among the most vigorous proponents of delisting the MEK, has described it as "Iran's main opposition" and a US "ally" against the Tehran government. Filner was the author of a pro-MEK resolution in Congress in favour of unbanning the organisation.

Another member of Congress, Dana Rohrabacher, is also pushing for the US government to embrace the group as the "legitimate opposition" to the Iranian government. He has praised it as "among the first to warn us of the Iranian nuclear programme" and said he believes it to have cooperated with Israel in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists.

Rohrabacher welcomed the delisting.

"The MEK was placed on the foreign trrorist organisations list in a misguided attempt by the Clinton administration to gain favour with the government in Tehran. The MEK are Iranians who desire a secular, peaceful and democratic government. Nothing threatens the mullah dictatorship more than openness and transparency," he said.

Ted Poe, a member of Congress from Texas who has received political donations from Iranian Americans campaigning for the MEK to be delisted, has described the group as "freedom fighters" fighting "the mullahs of Iran" who he described as the "real terrorists". He, too, is pressing for the Obama administration to recognise the group.

Homeira Hesami, president of the Iranian American Community of North Texas, said the delisting would free the MEK to campaign in the US.

"The removal of the MEK from the terrorist list will unshackle the movement in its efforts to bring change to Iran, will send a very strong message to the Iranian people that they can pursue their democratic aspirations, and serves notice to the ruling Ayatollahs that the days of blackmail and intimidation are over," he said.

The MEK has described itself as a government-in-exile and self-appointed its leader, Maryam Rajavi, as Iran's de facto president in waiting.

However, there is likely to be strong resistance from within the state department and US intelligence services – mindful of the experience of dealing with Ahmed Chalabi, who portrayed his Iraqi National Congress as having far more support than it had – to working with the MEK because it is seen by many US officials as a fringe organisation, even a cult, with little support on the ground in Iran. If anything, opinion in Iran is broadly hostile to the MEK in large part because it allied itself with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. The group is also viewed by many as a tool of the American and British intelligence services, and possibly Israel's Mossad.
Iran's pro-democracy Green Movement spurned the MEK after the government tried to link the two in an attempt to discredit the popular opposition. Zahra Rahnavard, a Green Movement leader and wife of the former prime minister and now opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has said the MEK is not representative of Iranians.

"The MEK can't be part of the Green Movement. This bankrupt political group now makes some laughable claims, but the Green Movement and the MEK have a wall between them and all of us," she told Foreign Policy magazine in 2010.

Reza Marashi, a former official on the US state department's Iran desk who is now research director for the National Iranian American Council in Washington, said unbanning the MEK will do little to help the Iranian opposition.

"The majority in the country know that these guys fought with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war and they view them as traitors. During my time in Iran, and I'm still hearing this from people who are on the ground in Iran, there's little to no support," he said.

Marashi said the delisting feeds into Tehran's narrative that the US is using the MEK for attacks on Iran and may complicate negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme.

"That affiliation will likely become even more of an excuse for the persecution of students and legitimate indigenous pro-democracy, pro-reform activists. But more than that, the delisting will be seen as a general hostile act. It's a boost to the regime because now they can use this as a pretext to crack down on the legitimate opposition inside the country. Any effect of the delisting on nuclear negotiations is going to be negative. The Iranian government will read it as one more indication that the US is only interested in hostility and regime change without coming to terms with the regime itself," he said.

John Limbert, a state department diplomat who was held hostage in the US embassy after the 1979 Iranian revolution, and later served as deputy assistant secretary of state for Iran, called the delisting decision a "strange and disappointing decision".

"I know the group claims it has abandon its violent and anti-American past. I wish I could believe them. They have a very dubious history and a similarly dubious present," he told Lobelog.

The state department will not publicly discuss the decision to delist the MEK until Clinton formally announces it. But it follows a multi-million dollar campaign that won the support of members of Congress and a slew of prominent former officials, including former heads of the US military and ex-White House officials for unbanning the MEK.

Iranian American groups recognised that contribution as they praised the decision to unban the group.

"The delisting was in part due to the perseverance of members of Congress and the courage shown by senior former US officials," said Ross Amin of the Iranian American Community of Northern California.