In recent weeks, the surge of misinformation and propaganda originating from Iran has significantly intensified. This escalation, whose timing reveals a familiar pattern from the past, highlights Tehran’s profound unease as the annual Free Iran gathering approaches. Despite addressing disparate issues, these statements underscore a shared undercurrent of concern.
After Sweden’s government extradited convicted criminal Hamid Noury to Iran, the former prison guard couldn’t help himself but express sheer hostility and agitation upon his arrival in Tehran. In a heated statement, he declared, “I have a short message for these terrorists, the miserable, fugitive, and pitiful hypocrites. Where are they? They are in Albania, as refugees, living off welfare, traitors to their country. They are displaced and wretched in other countries. But I, Hamid Noury, am in Iran. I am in Tehran. I am with my family. On the occasion of Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Ghadir, I am in Tehran. Hypocrites, you were hopeful, but where are you now?”
Hypocrites is the pejorative term inducted by the regime’s former Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini to defame the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MEK/PMOI) inside Iran.
While embracing Noury in Tehran, Kazem Gharibabadi, Deputy for Human Rights in the Judiciary, underscored the crucial role of the Iranian Resistance in the prosecution of this convicted murderer. Gharibabadi stated, “We have always declared that Mr. Noury committed no crime and was detained for five years based on accusations from a terrorist group.”
#Iran’s Regime Admits Failure in 44-Year Effort to Discredit #MEKhttps://t.co/rgxK3iXWrE
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) January 29, 2024
Furthermore, on June 13, numerous state media outlets systematically and identically reported a police raid on “a MEK base in France,” alleging that the operation was directly overseen by Tehran and led to the seizure of numerous weapons. The regime is so desperate to spread falsehoods and sow confusion about the organization that it disregarded diplomatic norms, even at the risk of angering Paris.
On June 15, the IRGC-run website Javan Online published a 2,665-word article dedicated to explaining why Masoud Rajavi, then a presidential candidate representing the MEK and many other ideological and ethnic groups, was disqualified by the clerical regime nearly 45 years ago. While attempting to portray the MEK as power-hungry and anarchistic, the article went to great lengths to use excerpts from MEK statements to blame the group for the bloody oppression inflicted upon them by the ruling theocracy.
For a regime challenged by a major internal resistance force for nearly half a century, it is clear that no day or week passes without acknowledging this threat. After the 1988 massacre of political prisoners, when the theocratic dictatorship believed it had erased the MEK from Iran’s memory, it maintained three decades of systemic silence on the organization as an undeclared official policy. However, over the past decade, the regime has been forced to spin its own narratives to keep up with society, hoping to poison public opinion with lies about the largest and most organized, non-state Iranian entity.
#Iran’s Regime Amplifies #Propaganda Amidst Rising Fear of Public Backlash Over Exposed Weaknesshttps://t.co/lX2cFCMbRx
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 16, 2024
All behind-the-scenes deals and extensive propaganda efforts are clearly aimed solely at domestic audiences. These moves are designed to demoralize a broad spectrum of dissidents as well as to reassure the regime’s repressive forces and proxies who are deeply worried about Tehran’s instability and weakness.
However, not all narratives about the MEK favor the regime, even those from insiders and state officials. This week, Abbas Abdi, a former deputy prosecutor and torturer who now identifies as a journalist, made striking comments.
On June 7, while reflecting on the first election held in Iran, he acknowledged MEK’s popularity: “The first presidential election in Iran was held in February 1979. At that time, 130 candidates registered. But don’t worry, they were all disqualified. But only one of them was disqualified for political reasons, and that was Massoud Rajavi. He had a different logic and a significant voter base. However, the others with strong support were all approved. If you look closely, you’ll notice that none of them were clerics.”
Meanwhile, during the presidential campaign, a video featuring Masoud Pezeshkian was broadcast on state television, exposing the regime’s falsehoods about the relationship between the MEK and the former Iraqi government.
In this clip, Pezeshkian stated, “When the war started, the front needed forces, so we established the Islamic Association. There was a group of Mojahedin who argued, saying, ‘The country doesn’t belong to you. We want to come and defend the country.’”
