Senators introduce bipartisan resolution in support of dissident Iranian exiles

While much attention was focused on the Senate working into the wee hours of the morning to pass a spending bill in a last-minute bid to avert a partial government shutdown on Friday, a group of senators found a little bipartisan comity around rebuking the Iranian government.

A resolution introduced this week by Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, is the latest effort by members of Congress to extend political recognition to members of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq, or MEK — a group of dissident Iranian refugees living in Europe and primarily centred in Ashraf-3, a political enclave in Albania. The group, led by President-elect Maryam Rajavi, brands itself as a democratic resistance movement against the authoritarian Iranian government. Previously involved in violent resistance against the Iranian regime, it was designated as a terrorist group by the US government until 2012 (a position Iran’s leaders supported).

The MEK, with its political arm the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), has pushed Congress for such political recognition for many years. The latter group frequently hosts events and political briefings with members of Congress, and retains a number of allies among hawkish wings of both major parties.

Mr Tillis’s resolution was joined by Democrats including Cory Booker and Bob Menendez of New Jersey, as well as Sens Chris Coons and Jeanne Shaheen; a number of his fellow Republicans also signed on. It recognises Ms Rajavi and her much-touted “Ten Point Plan for the Future of Iran”, which calls for a “secular” and “non-nuclear” democratic government in the country.

It’s the latest — and most direct, in recent memory — bipartisan show in support for the MEK and NCRI by lawmakers that will