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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iran
Index
In 1987 the principal Islamic party in opposition to the
government of Iran was the Mojahedin, which had been founded in
1965 by a group of religiously inspired young Shias. All were
college graduates who believed that armed struggle was the only way
to overthrow the shah. In the early 1970s, the Mojahedin engaged in
armed confrontations with the military and carried out acts of
terrorism, including the assassination of an American military
adviser. The Mojahedin was crushed for the most part by 1975, but
it reemerged in early 1979 and revitalized itself. Its
interpretations of Islam, however, soon brought the organization
into conflict with the IRP. During the summer of 1981, the
Mojahedin unsuccessfully attempted an armed uprising against the
government. More than 7,500 Mojahedin followers were killed during
the conflict, and within one year the organization had once again
been crushed
(see The Domination of the Islamic Republican Party
, this ch.).
Rajavi, the leader of the Mojahedin, managed to escape from
Iran with Bani Sadr in July 1981. In France he reorganized the
Mojahedin and tried to broaden its appeal by inviting all
nonmonarchist parties to join the National Council of Resistance,
which he and Bani Sadr established to coordinate opposition
activities. Although most of the political parties refrained from
cooperating with the Mojahedin, it nevertheless was most successful
in recruiting new members and establishing a loyal following in
United States and West European cities with sizable Iranian
communities. From the perspective of the other political parties,
one of the Mojahedin's most controversial positions was its public
endorsement of direct contacts with Iraq, beginning in 1983. This
was a contentious issue even within the National Council of
Resistance and eventually led to Bani Sadr's break with Rajavi in
1984.
The Mojahedin maintained clandestine contact with sympathizers
in Iran, and these underground cells regularly carried out isolated
terrorist acts. For this reason, Tehran was more concerned about
the Mojahedin than any other opposition group based abroad. The
freedom of operation that the Mojahedin enjoyed in France became
one of the issues that led to increasingly strained relations
between the Iranian and French governments after 1982. When Paris
actively sought to improve relations in late 1985, Prime Minister
Musavi set restrictions on the Mojahedin as one of the conditions
for normalizing relations. In June 1986, France pressured the
Mojahedin to curtail its activities. This move prompted Rajavi to
accept an invitation from President Saddam Husayn of Iraq for the
Mojahedin to establish its headquarters in Baghdad. Following the
move to Iraq, the Mojahedin set up military training camps near the
war front and periodically claimed that its forces had crossed into
Iran and successfully fought battles against the Pasdaran. In June
1987, Rajavi announced the formation of the newly reorganized and
expanded National Army of Liberation, open to non-Mojahedin
members, to help overthrow the government of Iran.
Data as of December 1987
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