MEK

The Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), also known as the MKO or PMOI, is an Iranian opposition organisation that began as a Left-Islamist guerrilla movement opposing the Shah in the 1970s. After initially supporting the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the MEK broke with Ayatollah Khomeini and was driven into exile following mass arrests and executions. For a decade from 1986 it operated from Iraq under Saddam Hussein's patronage, fighting alongside Iraqi forces in the Iran-Iraq War — a history that still makes it deeply unpopular among most Iranians, regardless of their views on the Islamic Republic.

The MEK was removed from the US State Department terrorist designation list in 2012 after a lobbying campaign; it lost EU designation in 2009. It has since repositioned itself as a democratic alternative to the current government, headquartered at Camp Ashraf 3 near Tirana, Albania, following resettlement from Iraq. The organisation is led by Maryam Rajavi, who presents herself as Iran's government-in-exile president-elect.

In the 2026 conflict context, Tehran has accused MEK operatives of working alongside Israeli intelligence to identify and pass targeting information about IRGC and nuclear sites. These claims underpin several wartime espionage prosecutions, including that of Soltanali Shirzadi Fakhr. The MEK's political front, the NCRI, was the sole source for a reported 1 July death sentence against alleged member Arghavan Fallahi, whose lawyer received six years; neither claim is independently verified. Western intelligence services view the MEK with scepticism: its intelligence on Iranian nuclear sites has proven both accurate and unreliable depending on the source period.