An attack in Paris was thwarted

Two people of Iranian origin were arrested in Brussels, Belgium, accused of preparing a terrorist attack during an event that occurred on the same day in the city French town of Villepinte, near Paris. That of the Belgian authorities was the first of a series of operations in Europe that led to the arrest of people suspected of being linked in one way or another. another to the organization of the attack: it is still a rather obscure history Iranian opposition group.

The arrested people are a couple of Iranian descent who does not have much information: he is 38 years old and has been identified as Amir S .; she, 33, like Nasimeh N. Both, said the Belgian federal prosecutor, were found in possession of about a pound of triplexide triacetone, an explosive device better known with the initials TATP, and a detonator. Their goal was a major event organized by the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, better known as MEK, a group that would overthrow the current Iranian regime and was long regarded as a terrorist organization by the United States and Europe. . The event was attended by Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York and today US President Donald Trump 's attorney, and several Iranians in exile and US citizens close to the cause of the PMOI.

Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York and Donald Trump's personal attorney at the event held last Saturday in Paris (ZAKARIA ABDELKAFI / AFP / Getty Images)

Related to this Three other people were arrested in France, two of whom were later released: the person still in detention was identified as Merhad A., 54, suspected of being an accomplice of the Belgian couple. There was also an arrest in Germany: a 46-year-old Iranian diplomat, identified as Assadollah A., who works at the Austrian Embbady in Vienna and is believed to have had contact with them. two Belgians. The authorities of the three countries have not specified what kind of links would have detained the arrest and until now it is unclear who is behind this whole story. The MEK accused the Iranian regime, which, through the intermediary of its Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, denied any involvement.

The MEK is an opposition group in exile particularly opposed by the Iranian Shiite regime. He was born in the mid-1960s as a movement of opposition to Shah Reza Pahlavi, who had established an authoritarian regime after the 1953 coup against Prime Minister-elect Mohammad Mosaddegh, with the exception of the government. help from British and American intelligence agencies. The MEK's ideology was based on the Islamic religion, on anti-Americanism and on the revolutionary militant movements of the time, often influenced by Marxism. Since its founding, the MEK has organized several acts of terrorism against the Shah regime, which was subsequently overthrown by the Islamic revolution of February 1979.

In other words, the MEK is not born as a pro-Western movement. In the 1970s, he was accused of killing American citizens in Iran and participating in the attack on the US embbady in Tehran in November 1979. Shortly after the Islamic Revolution of 1980 , PMO broke with the fundamentalist government of Ayatollah Khomeini, of which he had been an ally: he began to use the armed struggle and its structures to fight the new Islamic government and approached the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, transferring his headquarters to Iraq.

Participants at the event last Saturday in Paris raise images of some people killed by the Iranian regime (ZAKARIA ABDELKAFI / AFP / Getty Images)

For many years, the MEK was included in the list of terrorist organizations created by the US State Department and the European Union. suppressed through intense lobbying activities. Several US politicians – including National Security Advisor John Bolton, a close badociate of Trump and a very aggressive and right-wing politician – are hosting the PMOI because they see it as an alternative to the current regime in Tehran.

Arrests The last days have come at a particularly complicated time for Iran, particularly because of the uncertainties surrounding the Iranian nuclear deal, whose survival has been questioned since Trump's decision to withdraw from the treaty. The Iranian government led by President Hbadan Rouhani, considered the most moderate wing of the regime, is trying to maintain good relations with Europe, to avoid the imposition of new sanctions that could be extremely damaging to the already weak Iranian economy. Rouhani is busy these days with an official trip to Switzerland and Austria, the country that presides over the Council of the European Union today.