The House Foreign Affairs Committee has scheduled for Mrs. Rajavi, the Paris-based Iranian opposition leader to address the “ISIS: Defining the Enemy” hearing through video conference on April 29, according to the committee’s website and sources in the US Congress.
The news of the hearing was well received by Iranian-American communities in the United States. In several states including New York, California, and Texas where there are large Iranian minorities, representatives of those communities praised Congress’ move to hear from the Iranian opposition.
According to these Iranian-Americans, the invitation reflects unusual bipartisan support for their cause among members of the House of Representatives.
Maryam Rajavi is the President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the coalition of Iranian opposition movements. The People’s Mojahedin organization of Iran (MEK) is the principal constituent of the coalition.
Rajavi’s movement came into the limelight when it alerted the world about Iran’s clandestine nuclear project in August 2002 by exposing the Natanz uranium enrichment and the Arak heavy water facilities. Over the years it has revealed some of the most important dimensions of the Iranian regime’s nuclear weapons program, namely the Kalay-e Electric centrifuge assembly and testing facility, the Lavizan-Shian site, the Fordow underground enrichment site, and the Defensive Innovation and Research Organization, which is wholly responsible for coordinating the Iranian military nuclear program.
The MEK is credited with releasing the details of nearly 32,000 paid operatives of Iran working in neighboring Iraq in 2007. According to the Iranian dissidents, Tehran formed and nurtured terror groups in Iraq and exported Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) to that country following the invasion of Iraq by the US-led coalition in 2003. Senior US military commanders confirmed that IEDs sent from Iran were responsible for the death and injury of hundreds of US service personnel in Iraq.
The MEK has also called attention to broader issues surrounding the Iranian regime and its ideology. In an acclaimed 1993 book titled Islamic Fundamentalism: The New Global Threat, one of the senior officials of Rajavi’s movement warned about the rising threat of Islamic fundamentalism, the violence that emanates from it, and Tehran’s role as the first theocracy in recent history.
The MEK has witnessed the brunt of suppression and executions in Iran. According to Iranian dissidents, about 120,000 activists, the overwhelming majority of them identified with the MEK have been executed in Iran over the past three decades. The MEK’s representatives have galvanized a global campaign against human rights offenses, in particular against women within Iran.
The group holds massive meetings attended by large numbers of Iranian expatriates accompanied by international supporters including a stellar roster of US dignitaries.
Rajavi will be joined by Robert Ford, former US ambassador to Syria who resigned last year in protest over the Obama administration’s lackluster policy on Syria, and Dr. Walid Phares, Co-Secretary General of Transatlantic Parliamentary Group on Counter terrorism.
