In an interview with the Christian Science Monitor, entitled ” ONE-ON-ONE with the Iranian Opposition” published in the US, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, regarding the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) designation in the terrorist list and the US sanctions, said: The US government’s action against it is a “clear testament and an indispensable prelude to democratic change in Iran.”

At the beginning of his interview with the Resistance’s President-elect, John Hughes, a former editor of the Monitor, and a professor of communications at Brigham Young University, wrote: The head of the Iranian opposition group in exile that supplied early intelligence on Iran’s clandestine nuclear program says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has engineered a clever disinformation campaign to convince foreign experts that Iran is eight to 10 years away from developing a nuclear bomb. But in fact, she says, the regime is less than two years away from producing such a weapon, as part of its plan to “create an Iranian empire” in the Middle East.

The Christian Science Monitor added: In a wide-ranging weekend telephone conversation from her base of exile in Paris, Maryam Rajavi told me that Mr. Ahmadinejad has purged between 40 and 50 senior military officers who are in disagreement with his plans. She also explained that the resignation of Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, followed dispute between Mr. Larijani and Ahmadinejad over “incentives” Larijani had been prepared to offer his interlocutors in the West.

Regarding PMOI’s designation in the US State Department black list, Hughes wrote: In a bizarre twist, some 3,800 Mujahideen fighters who later conducted operations against the Iranian regime from Iraqi territory during the reign of Saddam Hussein are currently being held in benign custody in Iraq by US forces as “protected” persons. The current Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is attempting to prosecute or deport them. Rajavi says this is at the behest of Iran.

Christian Science Monitor added: Both the NCRI and the People’s Mujahideen claim to have substantial underground support in Iran. Though the information of exiled groups about events in their tyrannized homelands has come under acute scrutiny since Iraqi exiles produced questionable data about events in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, the NCRI is credited by US sources with accurately identifying clandestine Iranian nuclear facilities early on.

After reminding the recent position taken by Bahrain’s Crown Prince who directly accused Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons, the Christian Science Monitor added: In her weekend conversation, Rajavi was adamant that “military intervention” in Iran by the US or others is not desirable. However, she praised the Bush administration for its recent branding of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity. The IRGC, she said, holds key positions in government, dominates much of the economy, controls the nuclear program, and has a major role in drug trafficking.

Maryam Rajavi added: The Guards are responsible for the torture and execution of many Iranians and are the “center of all the disasters” of the Iranian people. They are also key to Iran’s military role in Iraq. According to Rajavi, they use the “Ramezan” garrison and four tactical bases near the Iran-Iraq border to send arms and explosives to Iraq. NCRI has exposed three factories in a very secure area in Tehran that are making roadside bombs to send to Iraq, she adds.

.At the end of this interview, John Hughes, referring to his previous interview with Mrs. Rajavi, wrote” As we began our conversation, she reminded me that “everything I warned you about two years ago about Ahmadinejad has come true. He has declared war [on his perceived enemies].”