The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI; Persian: شورای ملی مقاومت ایران, romanized: Šurā-ye melli-e moqāvemat-e Īrān) is an Iranian political organization based in France and Albania and was founded by Massoud Rajavi and Abolhassan Banisadr.
[21] The Foundation of the NCRI allowed Massoud Rajavi to "assume the position of chairman of the resistance to the Islamic Republic and provided an outlet for the Mojahedin to codify its ideological models for a future government to replace that of the mullahs.
[32] In 2003, French police rounded up 167 PMOI sympathizers and placed 24 people under formal investigation, including the NCRI president Maryam Rajavi.
[34][35][36][37] In June 2020, a majority of members of the US House of Representatives backed a "bipartisan resolution" supporting Maryam Rajavi and the NCRI's "call for a secular, democratic Iran" while "condemning Iranian state-sponsored terrorism".
[38][39] In February 2021 Belgian court in Antwerp sentenced Assadollah Assadi, who worked at the Iranian embassy in Vienna, to 20-year jail term for plotting to bomb a rally of NCRI outside Paris in June 2018.
[40] The NCRI received support from US Congress and US officials including Tom Ridge, Howard Dean, Michael Mukasey, Louis Freeh, Hugh Shelton, Rudy Giuliani, John Bolton, Bill Richardson, James L. Jones, Edward G. Rendell, Brian Binley, and Lt. General Thomas Mclenerney.
[46] Alireza Jafarzadeh was its official representative in the US until the Washington office was closed by the US State Department in 2002 on the grounds that it was only a front group for the MEK by then listed as a terrorist organisation in the US.
According to the Wall Street Journal[48] "Senior diplomats in the Clinton administration say the MEK figured prominently as a bargaining chip in a bridge-building effort with Tehran."
[55][2] [56] The Middle East department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in the United Kingdom stated in early 2006 that it is widely understood that "Iran's [nuclear] program, which was kept secret from the IAEA for 18 years, became public knowledge largely because of revelations of the NCRI, and this led to heightened international concern.
"[57] At the same time Michael Axworthy, former head of the Iran section at the FCO, claimed that the NCRI is a "tightly disciplined front organization for the MEK" and deemed them unreliable.
[59][34][60][61][62] The plan has been supported by British MPs,[34] some arguing that it is a potential programme that "would transform Iran" since it calls for the abolition of the death penalty, the creation of a modern legal system and the independence of judges.
Madam Rajavi would end Tehran's funding of Hamas, Hezbollah and other militant groups and is committed to peaceful coexistence, relations with all countries and respect for the United Nations charter.