ERBIL, Kurdistan Region, Jan. 17, 2017 – Dozens of former US officials have called on President-elect Donald Trump to open channels of communication with the Iranian dissident group Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), whom advocates for regime change in Iran.
The former officials, among them former FBI director and national security adviser to President Obama, have urged the incoming Trump administration “to establish a dialogue with Iran’s exiled resistance, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).”
The MEK, also known as People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), has established a self-styled parliament in exile under the umbrella of NCRI, a coalition of five groups dominated by the MEK.
The Paris-based MEK leader Maryam Rajavi is the group’s president-elect for a transitional period with a “mandate to oversee the peaceful transfer of power to the Iranian people following the regime’s overthrow.” It aims to establish a “secular democratic republic in Iran”.
President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly denounced the Iranian nuclear deal. On Sunday, he said in interview with a German and a British newspaper that “I’m not happy with the Iran deal, I think it’s one of the worst deals ever made.”
Among senior officials who have tirelessly advocated for the relocation of the MEK members from Iraq, is US Republican Senator John McCain, also seen as an MEK supporter.
