Pompeo Visits Albania to Meet MKO Terror Leader

Date: 18 May 2022 - 22:04

News ID: ۱۰۲۷۴۳

TEHRAN -- Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has paid a controversial visit to Albania, where he met with the head of the anti-Iran MKO terrorist group and voiced his support for the notorious cult.
Addressing a gathering of members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization, Pompeo said it was “special” for him to be among members of the MKO, which has the blood of over 12,000 Iranians on its hands.
The former CIA chief said that under the leadership of Maryam Rajavi, the MKO has been laying the groundwork for what he called a “free, sovereign, democratic republic of Iran.”
The ill-famed MKO is currently based in Albania, where it enjoys freedom of activity after being delisted by the European Union and the United States in 2009 and 2012, respectively. The group regularly hosts big events in which top American and European officials make speeches in support of the group.
Late U.S. Senator John McCain, former mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani, former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton, former U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, and former director of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agency Turki bin Faisal Al Saud are among top officials that have attended the group’s events.
According to Albanian media reports, MKO members have been involved in various criminal activities in Europe, including human trafficking in France. MKO members have also been arrested while trying to traffic drugs to Italy.
Since it was founded, the MKO launched a campaign of bombings and assassinations in Iran. The terrorist group also fought alongside Iraqi forces in the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s war on Iran in the 1980s.
However, the U.S. and the European Union removed the MKO from their lists of terrorist organizations
in order to use them as proxies against Iran.
Iranian officials have condemned the “shameless hypocrisy” of the U.S. and its European allies in supporting a terrorist cult that has Iranian blood on its hands. Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist attacks over the past four decades, about 12,000 have fallen victim to the group’s acts of terror.
Meanwhile, during the Monday meeting, the head of the infamous group also claimed that the fight against the Islamic Republic will continue.
She called for the imposition of “comprehensive sanctions” against Iran to isolate the country, claiming the Islamic Republic should be placed under Article 41 of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter.
Both Pompeo and Rajavi claimed that they support recent protests sparked by price hikes in Iran.
Support for anti-Iran terrorist groups in the U.S. and Europe has remarkably grown in the Western countries, with many Western spy agencies actively involved in aiding and arming them.
The Islamic Republic has already warned Europeans that their support for the MKO will be “costly” for them. Tehran has condemned the hosting of the group by Albania and its delisting by the US and Europe.