The Mullahs’ regime given comfort in London PDF Print E-mail
Thursday, 10 November 2005
Statement issued by Win Griffiths, former Labour MP for Bridgend:

The Iranian regime is currently under immense international pressure due to its brutal oppression at home, its export of Islamic fundamentalism and sponsorship of terrorism, its widespread interference in the internal affairs of Iraq and its aggressive pursuit of nuclear weapons.  This pressure has rightly intensified since the call by the mullahs’ President for the state of Israel to be wiped off the world map - nothing short of a call to terrorism. There can be no doubt that the Iranian regime, whose Revolutionary Guards General, Mohammad-Reza Jaafari, told an Iranian newspaper recently that the newly formed ‘Lovers of Martydom’ garrison would recruit individuals willing to carry out suicide operations against Western targets, represents a real threat to peace and stability in the Middle East and the wider world.    


Therefore, in a desperate attempt to divert attention from its precarious situation, the Iranian regime has, directly or indirectly, resorted to its old and much used policy of spreading misinformation against its main opposition, the PMOI. Part of this past much tried and failed policy is the planning of a series of press conferences in the US and Europe aimed at falsely accusing the PMOI of being “Saddam Hussien’s private army” and calling for the prosecution of its members. However, the organisers of these conferences conveniently forget that the PMOI played no part whatsoever in the recent war in Iraq, that the entire organisation and every one of its members were investigated by Coalition forces over a 16 month period and given a clean bill of health, leading to the recognition of their status as ‘protected persons’ under the Fourth Geneva Convention.    

Despite the recent conference in Washington having been a huge flop, and having been incensed by the regular meetings held in Parliament by the British Committee for Iran Freedom condemning the Iranian regime’s rogue actions at the same time as expressing support for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the Iranian regime is being given comfort by the press conference tomorrow morning.  

The press conference is due to be addressed by Massoud Khodabandeh and Anne Khodabandeh (nee Singleton). Some three years ago, Massoud’s brother, Ebrahim (currently being illegally held by the Iranian regime), made allegations about the involvement of his brother and sister-in-law with the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence in a statement given to the Courts in London. In a trip to Iran last year seeking the return to Britain of two Iranian refugees illegally sent to Iran by the Syrian authorities, one of whom was Ebrahim Khodabandeh, the brother of Massoud Khodabandeh, I was surprised to see Anne Khodabandeh in Evin prison. After this visit I had to engage in lengthy correspondence with Anne Khodabandeh about this matter because of misleading and inaccurate statements that she and her website, Iran-Interlink, had made about my trip to Iran.  

The press conference is also due to be addressed by Baroness Nicholson. Regrettably, Baroness Nicholson has for many years had close relations with the Iranian regime and as such has on occasion made unjustified statements in support of the Iranian regime and against the PMOI. She travels to Iran regularly and was recently reported by the Iranian regime’s media to have met the head of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (‘Kayhan’ 16 March 2005).  

Baroness Nicholson has in the past made scathing attacks on the PMOI, which have later been proved to be entirely false. By way example, she told the House of Lords on 26 February 2003, just prior to the beginning of the war in Iraq that, “I have evidence from others that the MKO [PMOI] has actively hidden weapons of mass destruction from the earlier inspectors…I have clear evidence of the ways in which the MKO shifted around weapons of mass destruction. Their commanders pushed them away, hid them, and boasted afterwards of having been successful in fooling the inspectors.” (Source: Hansard)

She also directly involved herself in a rather ugly episode in which the Iranian regime having brutally murdered three Protestant leaders in Iran in the mid-1990, attempted to apportion blame for the murders on the PMOI. In respect of this matter, the Catholic Herald stated on 10 March 2000, “At the time of their deaths [Bishop Haik Hovsepian-Mehr, the Rev Taratous Michaelian and Pastor Mehdi Dibaj] were blamed on the People’s Mojahedin…But the recent ferment in the Iranian press prompted former Revolutionary Guard commander Akbar Ganji to confirm the suspicions of Amnesty International and the Jubilee Campaign; last December he admitted that the Ministry of Intelligence had not only killed the clerics to smear its enemies, but had also bombed pilgrims at Muslim shrines (such as that in Imam Reza) to achieve the same objectives.”

At the same time as wishing to make clear my concern about the activities of Massoud Khodabandeh and his wife, Anne, in trying to divert attention away from the dangerous dictates of the mullahs’ regime and the activities of the Iranian regime in democratic countries like the United Kingdom, I believe that these acts are a sign of weakness on the part of Iran’s medieval and theocratic regime, which knows it has no place in the 21st century.