Are the US funding a coup in Iran?

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Attention is now focused on the Russian-Ukrainian front, however there is another issue that the United States has not forgotten and it concerns: Iran.

After the Trump administration pulled out of the nuclear deal, relations between Iran and the United States have gradually deteriorated. The alternation between Trump and Biden does not seem to have changed the path and indeed, after the American bombing in Syria in February 2021 in which they found the death of Iranian soldiers, the hypothesis of a restoration of the agreement is increasingly remote.

In the meantime, parts of the White House seem to have never abandoned the desire to be able to carry out a change of regime in Tehran in order to eliminate the inconvenient Islamic Republic led by the ayatollahs. The path is always the same: to take regime dissidents with dubious curriculums, clean up their image internationally, fund them with money and a quiet home abroad and from there organize uprisings in the country.

In this case, the United States appears to have relied on the controversial Islamic group Mojahedin-e Khalq, more commonly known as the MEK. It is a movement born following the Khomeinist revolution of 1979 and classified for many years as terrorist by both the United States and the European Union, for various attacks carried out in Iran.

Then the change: in 2009 the European Union removed it from the list of terrorist groups. While in 2012, under the Obama presidency, the State Department led by Hillary Clinton removed the MEK from the blacklist. First terrorists, then precious allies.

In any case, the MEK has been cleared in recent years in the Western world, as the young and clean image of Iran, destined to supplant the Islamic Republic.

After 2012, the United States facilitated the creation of a base in Albania that could house MEK members. An operation initially funded with $ 20 million donated through the UN agency UNHCR. Thus an operational base called Ashraf 3 was established, located in the locality of Manez in the province of Durres. The complex is militarized, closely guarded, and it's hard to even get close. Even outside photographs are prohibited.

The structure now houses over 3,000 members of the MEK, a bulky presence that over the last few years has also aroused the resentment of the local population. In 2020, the Albanian public authority had to intervene to stop the protests of local inhabitants following the appropriation of hectares of land by members of the MEK to bury their affiliates who died due to Covid.

In recent months, the structure seems to be in particular turmoil, also following two official visits from Washington. Mike Pompeo, former director of the CIA, visited Ashraf 3 last May and declared that:

Eventually, the Iranian people will have a secular, democratic and non-nuclear republic. I am committed to this cause, I know you are too.

https://twitter.com/Maryam_Rajavi/status/1526224581974966274

After Pompeo, it was the turn of Mike Pence:

In Iran there is a well-organized, fully prepared, fully qualified and popular alternative called MEK.

Iran has repeatedly denounced the interference of this group in the internal affairs of the state, accusing it in particular of having fomented protests in 2019. We cannot say that the Republic of Ayatollahs is the best possible government for Iranians, certainly we can admit that all American interventions aimed at regime change have led to civil wars, terrorism and destroyed countries.

References:

https://atalayar.com/en/blog/mike-pence-ashraf-3-albania-diplomatic-success-iranian-resistance

https://iran-interlink.org/wordpress/who-is-behind-the-expenditures-of-the-miracle-in-ashraf-3/

https://www.ashraf-news.com/en/4371/Albanian-official-visits-Manza-to-contain-protests-against-MEK

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/18/us-iranian-dissidents-accept-albanian-asylum-offer/