Iranian opposition protest outside EU in Brussels

(10 Jan 2020) Protesters from a controversial Iranian opposition group rallied outside the European Council building in Brussels on Friday, urging the European Union to take a tougher stance against the Iranian regime. Members of the The National Council of Resistance of Iran (the political arm of the People's Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran, also known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq or MEK), urged EU nations to cease what they described as an appeasement policy toward Iran. A spokesman for the protesters said the Iranian regime was not interested in abiding by the nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. Several of the protesters carried photographs said to be of comrades who had fallen fighting for freedom in Iran. Their group's name, Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, means "the People's Holy Warriors." Maryam Rajavi is the so called "president-elect" of the MEK. The MEK has a controversial history that has gone against American interests in the past by supporting Iran's Islamic Revolution and the U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran. After fleeing Iran, the MEK joined forces with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. It later exposed details of the clandestine nuclear programme run by Iran, which views the MEK as its sworn enemy. The MEK announced it had renounced violence in 2001. But the U.S. Army's official history of the Iraq invasion in 2003 says MEK forces "fought against coalition forces" for the first weeks of the war, something the MEK denies. It was removed from a list of designated terrorist groups by the US State Department in 2012. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Google+: https://plus.google.com/b/102011028589719587178/+APArchive​ Tumblr: https://aparchives.tumblr.com/​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/0a73c5ce0e4f45459ad4ae4ef157712d