Maga world figures throw weight behind Maryam Rajavi, MEK’s leader, and Reza Pahlavi, the son of last Shah of Iran
As a US battle group steamed to the Gulf in November 2002, competing Iraqi exiles, some championed by American insiders, jockeyed for position in the hopes of taking charge once George W Bush toppled Saddam Hussein. Bloomberg dubbed them “Iraq’s unruly opposition”.
The most notorious Iraqi exile, failed former banker Ahmad Chalabi, boasted to his neoconservative allies that his return to Baghdad would be welcomed by cheering throngs. Among his competition was a former doctor named Ayad Allawi, who was backed by Britain’s MI6 and the Central Intelligence Agency in his bid for support to rule Iraq.
Now it is Iranian rather than Iraqi exile factions who are tugging at the sleeves of American officials, jostling for the White House blessing to lead a future government of Iran following Donald Trump’s massive military operation.
One camp of Maga world figures has thrown its weight behind Maryam Rajavi, the Paris-based leader of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK, what some call a cultlike organization that was once aligned with Saddam. Although it’s reported to be unpopular in Iran, the group has forged strong ties in Washington, often using the MEK’s political face, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, to lobby.
