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(Video) The Iran-Iraq War: How the MEK Ended Khomeini’s Eight-Year Thirst for Bloodshed

September 24, 2021 - In the year 1980, as Iraqi forces crossed into Iran, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) condemned the occupation of Iranian territory and declared its readiness to defend the homeland and innocent people of western

(NCRI) and (PMOI / MEK Iran): In the year 1980, as Iraqi forces crossed into Iran, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) condemned the occupation of Iranian territory and declared its readiness to defend the homeland and innocent people of western Iran.

The New York Times quoting Khomeini on March 19, 1982, and unilaterally rejected all eleven U.N. Security Council resolutions to end the war.

War damages: Two million casualties and disabled, Four million displaced and homeless, 50 cities destroyed, 3,000 villages destroyed, $1 trillion in damages, 40,000 prisoners of war, 7,000 disappeared”
— Analysis by (PMOI/MEK)

PARIS, FRANCE, September 24, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Iran-Iraq officially began when Iraqi Air Force jets bombing Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport on Sunday, September 22, 1980. The war lasted for eight years and caused irreparable humanitarian and economic damage to both sides.

But tensions that led to the war had been ongoing for several months.

Following the 1979 anti-monarchy revolution in Iran, regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini considered two pillars to maintain his rule: domestic repression and exporting the “revolution.” Khomeini’s policy of exporting the “the Islamic Revolution” (read extremism and fundamentalism), played a key role in the outbreak of hostilities.

Iraq with a 60 percent Shi’ite population and home to two important holy shrines of Shiite Islam was Khomeini’s best springboard to export his so-called “revolution.” Also, for centuries, Iraq had been the most important center of Shi’ism in the Arab World. Therefore, establishing an “Islamic Republic” in Iraq became a top priority for Khomeini. Slogans such as “Liberating Quds (Jerusalem) through Karbala” reflected Khomeini’s extraterritorial design to establish an Islamic empire.

Some of Khomeini’s provocations before the war:

February 26, 1979—Khomeini during a meeting with a Kuwaiti Shiite delegation: “A great Islamic government must rule the world.”

March 1979—Al Ray Al-am newspaper of Kuwait: “Tehran wants to establish an empire in the name of Islam.”

March 1980—Khomeini’s speech: “As a result of Sharia law, Saddam Hussein is a kafir (infidel). He supports the infidels. Destroy this source of corruption. We will help you. Destroy this corrupt individual. I suggest to them, the Iraqi army, to rise and destroy this figure.”

April 8, 1980: “Khomeini calls on Iraqi army to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime.”

April 1980: Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz was the target of a failed assassination attempt.

May 1980: Increasing conflicts by both sides on the Iran-Iraq border.

September 4, 1980: “Iran targeted Iraqi cities Khanaqin and Mandali.”


Khomeini’s war

The war enabled the mullahs to fortify the pillars of Khomeini’s rule as the Supreme leader and justify their domestic repression. For the same reason, the Iran-Iraq war that could have come to an end in 1982 was pursued by Khomeini until 1988.

In March 1982, then Swedish prime minister Olof Palme entered Tehran for peace talks. His suggestion of Iraq paying $60 billion for war damages to Iran and bringing the war to an end was rejected by Khomeini.

In June 1982, Iraqi forces withdrew from Iranian territory and behind international borders. Khorramshahr, an occupied city of Khuzestan province in southwest Iran, was released. Iraq began seeking a peace agreement with Iran but Khomeini refused and literally dubbed the war as “God’s blessing.”

“There would be no peace until Saddam Hussein's government fell,” Khomeini said according to The New York Times quoting Khomeini on March 19, 1982, and unilaterally rejected all eleven U.N. Security Council resolutions to end the war.

Some Gulf States agreed to pay compensation for war damages to both sides if they accepted the ceasefire and ended the war. However, Khomeini needed the war to continue. It gave him the best excuse to suppress dissidents and demands for freedom, blaming all opponents as agents of the enemy.

Khomeini never sought to end or prevent the war because he was the one constantly pushing for it. Former Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) chief Mohsen Rezaee once said, “We told [Khomeini] that we have no money, but he said you figure it out! The war must continue!”

Khomeini: “Every day we had blessings from the war which we profit from it. We are exporting our revolution to the world. Our war is a war between justice and injustice, and there is no end in sight.”

1982—Ali Khamenei, then regime president: “Islam has no frontiers and the aim of war against Iraq is to establish an Islamic State under the leadership of Khomeini.”

August 1983—Khomeini: “This war is the war of our destiny.”

January 1985—Khamenei: “The war is the existence of Islam.”

January 1985—Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, then commander of Iran’s forces: “The war is our existence.”

June 1986—Rafsanjani: “We have no way other than continuing the war. If we want to compromise… then we have to give our place to others.”

War damages

The eight-year war had catastrophic consequences for both the people of Iran and Iraq:

Two million casualties and disabled
Four million displaced and homeless
50 cities destroyed
3,000 villages destroyed
More than $1 trillion in damages
40,000 prisoners of war
7,000 disappeared
However, maybe one of the most inhuman crimes committed by Khomeini’s regime was in sending school children as cannon fodder during the war.

When the legitimacy of war insisted upon by Khomeini came under question, the regime had limited volunteers and needed to replenish its military force. Also, the regime was confronted with the problem of how to clear vast Iraqi minefields. The regime first tried to use animals such as donkeys and sheep to clear the minefields. But the animals could not be restrained after one or two explosions. Therefore, by brainwashing thousands of schoolboys the regime used them as “cannon-fodder” to clear the minefields. They were given “keys to the heavens,” saying if they will go to heaven if they were martyred.

On October 31, 1997, Hashemi Rafsanjani acknowledged that about 36,000 schoolboys were sent to the war fronts.

On December 1, 2013, Yahya Rahim Safavi, former IRGC chief and current military adviser to regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said: “[Khomeini] managed to deploy about two million forces to the front. In addition to the forces that were required to be present on the front, about one million schoolboys were present during the war.”

On September 24, 2016, Azizallah Shahbazi, commander of the Abadan special forces in southwest Iran told Arvand press: “In 1985, a school with 70,000 students was closed to go to the front…”

The war, to this day described by regime officials as the “Holy Defense,” was nothing but defending Khomeini’s theocratic rule.

MEK’s role in the war

In the year 1980, as Iraqi forces crossed into Iran, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) condemned the occupation of Iranian territory and declared its readiness to defend the homeland and innocent people of western Iran.

However, from the very first weeks of the war, IRGC forces were harassing and mistreating MEK-supported forces and even arrested many of their ranks.

After June 1982 and the withdrawal of Iraqi forces behind international borders, the Iraqi government was calling for a ceasefire and Khomeini constantly insisted on perpetuating the war in return. In such circumstances, the MEK saw no reason for continued hostilities and characterized the conflict as an un-unpatriotic war contrary to the Iranian people’s interests.

“No one inside the country, with the exception of the MEK, issued any statement following (the liberation of) to end the war,” Ali Shamkhani, now Secretary of the regime’s Supreme National Security Council once said.

Iranian Resistance Peace Plan

On January 9, 1983, Tariq Aziz, then deputy prime minister of Iraq, met with the Iranian Resistance Leader Massoud Rajavi in Auvers-Sur-Oise near Paris. They issued a joint statement calling for a peaceful settlement of the dispute between the two countries of Iran and Iraq through direct negotiations based on territorial integrity.

Following the meeting, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) announced its proposal for an "Outline Plan for Peace” defined in seven articles.

On March 21 of that year, the Iraqi government formally replied to the plan by praising the NCRI’s peace initiative and expressed their desire to realize peace and cooperate with the NCRI or any Iranian to that end and to establish relations on firm grounds.

The NCRI embarked on an extensive international peace campaign from 1983 to 1986. Its peace plan was welcomed by Iranians both inside the country and abroad, and many international politicians and parliamentarians. It received the backing of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (Resolution no. 849 dated September 1985), the European Parliament (Document B2-527/85 dated June 11, 1985), and more than 3,000 political parties, organizations, and personalities.

MEK’s significant impact on ending the war

The NCRI peace campaign was enthusiastically welcomed by the Iranian people while the MEK’s military forces had expanded significantly. Many saw prospects of the war coming to an end and Khomeini’s regime in its final days. As a result, thousands of young Iranians rushed to join the MEK.

In June 1986, Massoud Rajavi officially launched the National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA) and its forces began their operations against IRGC units.

Khomeini repeatedly vowed to fight on as long as one building was left standing in Iran. However, the NLA and its operations against the IRGC delivered a major blow to Khomeini’s war machine. During “Operation Forty Stars” in June 1988 the NLA captured the city of Mehran, Ilam province, and captured $2 billion in weapons, including 200-plus tanks, armored personnel carriers, and heavy field guns, thousands of vehicles, and countless small caliber weapons.

Follow this major defeat, Khomeini was forced into accepted the terms of U.N. Resolution 598 bringing an end to the war and famously describing his decision as “drinking the poison chalice.”

It was thus that the MEK forced the regime to end the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, which Khomeini pursued to create nothing but misery and catastrophe for the Iranian people. Khomeini would never have accepted the ceasefire without the MEK’s involvement. So, the question remains, who must be held accountable for the war that caused so much damage? History will be the judge.

Shahin Gobadi
NCRI
+33 6 51 65 32 31
email us here

Iranian regime using children in its war machine

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