The Iranian exile group that played Washington for this moment

The MEK spent heavily over decades enlisting American politicians to its cause. Now they are paying the group back by promoting its vision for a secular Iran.

Mujahedeen-e-Khalq supporters rally across from the White House after the death of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a U.S. airstrike in Iraq, in Jan. 2020. | Alex Brandon/AP

No one in Washington has prepared for this day as long as the Mojahedin-e-Khalq, an organization of Iranian exiles who have been fighting for decades to turn their homeland into a democracy.

While supporters of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed Shah who hopes to return to Iran as its next leader, have assembled a broad network of enthusiastic exiles, the MEK has focused on an inside game in western capitals. It recruited some of the most prominent figures in American politics, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean, initially with the goal of getting the State Department to shed the MEK’s longstanding designation as a terrorist group.

Now the MEK, which has been accused by critics of operating like a cult, sees an opening it has never had before. After this weekend’s killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by Israeli and U.S. airstrikes, France-based MEK leader Maryam Rajavi announced the formation of a secular provisional government.

© Politico