The Iranian opposition movement, National Council of Resistance of Iran, announced today that Iraqi military forces have started an attack on camp Ashraf north of Baghdad.
According to statements released by NCRI, so far at least 11 (the actual number later announced was 36, SF 27June2011) residents in Ashraf have been killed by Iraqi gunfire. Heavy machine guns and sharp shooters are targeting unarmed residents.
Stop Fundamentalism, April 7, 2011 – The secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the Iranian Opposition released a statement today, warning about an imminent attack on Camp Ashraf by Nuri al-Maliki forces.
The statement says that over 65 Iraqi personnel carriers have entered Ashraf today carrying new forces.
Stop fundamentalism, 03 April 2011 – According to a statement released by the National Council of Resistance of Iran today, Iraqi forces under command of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki government have occupied northern part of Camp Ashraf situated in north of Baghdad, Iraq.
Camp Ashraf is residence to over 3400 Iranian dissidents and members of the main Iranian opposition group the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran or PMOI.
Nima Sharif
A transatlantic rift in policy towards Iran seems to be closing rapidly as a momentum materializes in different policy making circles in Washington to close the gap due to recent developments in North Africa and Middle East. The momentum emanates from a call to reposition the West in support of newly forming democracies across the region, rather than the old approach of engaging tyrants for economic reasons and turning a blind eye on actions of governments towards their own people. Simply, the West wants to be on the right side of history as developments continue.
A major shift, pivotal in realizing this policy change is considered to be the approach towards a leading resistance movement from Iran, the National Council of Resistance of Iran and the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq organization or MEK.
Stop Fundamentalism, 17 March, 2011 – A member of Iraqi Parliament, Neda al-Jabouri told the Iraqi media that the Iranian regime continues to pressure the Iraqi government to violate the human rights of the residents in Camp Ashraf.
Residents of Camp Ashraf are mainly members of the Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq organization (MEK).
“While the residents must be protected against abuses, many of the patients at the camp are being deprived of medicine and medical treatment due to the unjust siege laid on them by Baghdad,” Said al-Jabouri to Baghdad Daily. She described the installation of 210 loudspeakers around the camp’s premises and other violation committed against the residents as “shameful action by Iraqi government meant to subject the residents to pressure and torture.”
Nima Sharif
While, the Iranian post-election unrest back in 2009 did not come to a favourable conclusion, it had a considerable influence on people in North Africa and Middle East encouraging them to stand up for their desires of freedom.
Angered by self emulation of an impoverished man, protesting his own harassment by government authorities, Tunisians flared up a regional wave of revolutions in North Africa immediately reaching Egypt. In a short period of time, two previously considered untouchable and totally stable governments of Tunis and Egypt, toppled.
Hamid Yazdanpanah
Jason Rezaian is, by his own admission, one of the only “foreign” journalists currently permitted to work in Iran. As we all know since the 2009 elections, the Iranian regime has been loath to allow any foreign journalists access to the country, however Mr. Rezaian has had no problem in this matter.
Indeed Mr. Rezaian has spent a considerable amount of time in Iran, and seemingly continues to enjoy a close relationship with the state; as he concedes in this commentary he wrote for the New York Times: “Last night I rode with some of them in a back of a truck plastered with the incumbent’s photos. These were members of the Bassij, the youth militia — young men in their 20s who are the new generation of the Islamic revolution.”
Nima Sharif
Recently in Washington, DC a number of former high ranked officials and public figures from both parties, made calls for the removal of the main Iranian oppositions group, the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq Organisation of Iran (MEK) from the State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organizations list. At the same time some discussions began to appear in online publications and blogs with arguments such as the MEK being a cult or being unpopular.
In an in-depth fact-finding researched paper, “Iranian Dissidents and Their Critics“, Raymond Tanter[1] of Iran Policy Committee, addresses these issues surrounding the MEK.
By Ali Safavi – March 9, 2011
Originally Published At HuffingtonPost.Com
For the past three weeks, tens of thousands of protestors have taken to the streets in Iran once again, demanding democracy and an end to the regime. Popular protests continue to haunt the fundamentalist rulers at a critical time in the region’s history. But without offering support to the Iranian people and their main opposition, this critical window of opportunity will be closed, and it will be much harder and too late to deal with the Iranian regime’s threat.
For the West, the expression of legitimate demands for freedoms and human rights across the Middle East has meant that the era of choosing tyrannical stability over democracy as a matter of foreign policy has ended.
To alleviate concerns about the role of religious fundamentalism in the region’s future, Washington should stop talking to the fundamentalist mullahs and start listening to the Iranian people.
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