April/May 1992, Page 44, 62

Special Report

Iranian Opposition Leader Charges Rafsanjani Regime Backing Algeria

By Richard H. Curtiss

"Today fundamentalism and Khomeinism, despite any differences, is like an octopus, with its heart in Tehran. We believe that it is this heart that must be targeted today."
-Director of International Relations Mohammed Mohaddessin of the People's Mojahedin of Iran, Feb. 25, 1992

An alleged long-range plan by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Regime aimed at undermining Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Arab states of the Gulf has been outlined in Washington by Mohammed Mohaddessin, director of international relations for the People's Mojahedin of Iran.

Mohaddessin described, in a Washington, DC meeting with U.S. journalists on Feb. 25, what he called "the Tehran mullahs' direct involvement in fomenting fundamentalism in Algeria, Sudan and other North African countries, as well as in the Central Asian republics and the Middle East."

The People's Mojahedin is a major Iranian opposition group whose armed forces fought on the Iraqi side in the Iran-Iraq war. It remained neutral in the Gulf war, and as a result its armed forces are intact. It maintains five military camps in Iraq, and offices in Washington and a number of Western European countries.

Mohaddessin said that the death of Ayatollah Khomeini has not reduced the Tehran regime's aggressive activities abroad. "The reality is that after the death of Khomeini, it was decided that the best means to secure the regime's survival was to export their revolution abroad, especially because they are so vulnerable domestically," he said. Instead of concentrating on defending Iran's borders, it was decided to rely upon expansion for Iran's security.

As a result, he said, the regime od President Ali Akhbar Rafsanjani has established a new ministry with an unlimited budget solely to deal with affairs in the former Soviet republics in Central Asia. Since last September, it has spent $540 million and sent 1,300 mullahs to predominantly Muslim areas of the former U.S.S.R. Personnel are being trained for such activity abroad in Qum, Mashad, Tabriz and Tehran.

Propagation of Iranian doctrines also is continuing at a high level in North Africa, Mohaddessin charged. He said Iran's Revolutionary Guards have set up an "Africa Corps" so secret that it is referred to only by the name "Code 870." Its activities have included dispatch of at least 2,000 Revolutionary Guards to Sudan to train fundamentalist militants not only from Sudan, but from Saudi Arabia and Egypt as well.

Their entré to Sudan, the Iranian opposition leader said, was secured with $300 million in weapons purchased for Sudan by Iran from China, and with the promise of one million tons of petroleum at no cost.

The Iranian effort is targeting Algeria in particular, he said. He quoted from what he described as a secret Iranian military document calling for putting emphasis on Algeria because success there "could have great influence" on the success of fundamentalists in Tunisia and in Egypt as well.

Two other regions being targeted, Mohaddessin said, are the Gulf states and the Eastern Arab region including Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. All of the activities, ultimately, are aimed at the present governments of Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The Iranian regime's reason for taking such a roundabout toward controlling the two most important Arab states, he said, is that because the United States is deeply concerned with the defense of Saudi Arabia, direct attempts at subversion would fail. The Rafsanjani reasoning is that, with control of its own shore of the Gulf, Iran now should concentrate on securing control of one coast of the Red Sea and thereby be able to dominate both flanks of Saudi Arabia.

Three events since the death of Khomeini have strengthened the Iranian regime's effort to export its doctrines, Mohaddessin said. They are the Gulf war's negative impact on Arab nationalism, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the "flexibility" demonstrated to date by the West toward the Khomeini regime's export of terrorism. These created a vacuum for the brand of Islamic militancy he called "Khomeinism."

The mullahs in charge of the present regime have, during the past three years, purchased millions of dollars' worth of weapons from China, the Soviet Union and from North Korea, including 350 fighter bombers, the Iranian opposition leader charged. They also have established six different nuclear weapons research centers throughout Iran, Mohaddessin said, with assistance from China, Pakistan and other countries. They also have purchased a cyclotron from Belgium.

"All of this nuclear research has no other aim except exporting Khomeinism, their brand of fundamentalism, to the other countries of the Arab and Islamic worlds," he said.

A Nationwide Resistance Movement

Mohaddessin said the People's Mojahedin has set up a nationwide resistance movement against Khomeinism, and for peace, justice and human rights. He called it "diametrically opposed to the misuse of Islam by the Khomeini regime.

"We have prepared ourselves to overthrow this regime by relying on our armed forces and on our extensive network inside the country," he continued. "The Iranian regime is much more vulnerable than ever before, and the Iranian resistance is much better prepared than ever before. The Khomeini regime is the enemy of peace, freedom and humanity anywhere in the world.

"Our enemies have organized their own united front from Morocco to Malaysia. But we, those who believe in democracy and peace. . . believe that we should not lose the opportunity to form our own united front within the Arab and Islamic world of those who are opposed to this threat to freedom. It is time for the free world to stand up against the internal and external crimes of the Khomeini regime."

The Iranian opposition leader called for boycotts against the Khomeini regime. "It is time to ask European and others not to sell arms to this regime, particularly nuclear arms. The Khomeini regime is more deserving of a boycott than others, particularly since they have executed 100,000 political prisoners since 1981," Mohaddessin said.

He distributed to journalists a July 20, 1987 clipping from the Iranian revolutionary regime's newspaper Ressalat quoting a statement by Mohsen Rafiqdoust, Revolutionary Guard Corps minister and Rafsanjani's brother-in-law, that the U.S. Marine Corps barracks destroyed in Lebanon with the loss of 241 lives was blown up with "TNT that belonged to Iran" and "an ideology that came from Iran."

"Doesn't this regime deserve to be boycotted by the U.N. Security Council?" Mohaddessin asked. "I hope that the Iranian resistance will very soon wipe out this stigma on humanity."

In answer to questions from journalists, Mohaddessin said that both Sunni and Shi'i Muslim militants were being brought by the Rafsanjani regime to Iran for training. He said that despite other differences, they shared "the very same views on establishing Islamic governments."

As an example, he pointed out that "what was known as communism or Marxism in a number of East Bloc countries was not necessarily exactly the same as communism in Moscow." He continued:

"Today, fundamentalism and Khomeinism, despite any local differences, is like an octopus with its heart in Tehran. We believe that it is this heart that must be targeted today. Could democracy have returned to that part of the world without the fall of Moscow?"

Mohaddessin said that his organization is committed to " free and fair" parliamentary elections to be held within the six months of the fall of the present Iranian regime, rights of ethnic and religious minorities, coexistence with other systems, and international and regional cooperation.

"These are the things the mullahs oppose," he concluded, "because they belong to the Middle Ages."

Richard H. Curtiss is the executive editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

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