The recent meeting of Mike Pence, former vice president of the United States, with the leader of the terrorist group MEK in their camp in Albania once again demonstrated that Americans hold on to double standards in treating various terrorist groups.
Of course, this was not the first instance of top American personalities visiting the leaders of the terrorist group or participating in their meetings. Claiming that the group, which had already claimed the lives of more than 17,000 Iranians over a four-decade span, stopped its military conducts to pursue a career in politics, the United States and the European Union removed the group from their respective Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) lists in 2001. The group, however, failed to give up on its terrorist nature, continuing to its subversive and terrorist actions on Iranian soil, even though Iranian security apparatus managed to foil much of its ambitions.
The terrorist group has recently admitted to two cases of its acts of sabotage and terrorism in Iran, which begs the question: “Why do the American government and the European Union refuse to reinstate its former status as a terrorist group?”
Americans labeled the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, an official military organization of the state of Iran, as a terrorist group. In a blatant act of terrorism, moreover, they assassinated Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Quds Force, which has been engaged in fighting terrorism in the region since long ago. Now, on the one hand, some former US officials are visiting the terrorists’ camp, which is not entirely unprecedented as former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo made presence in their meetings, not to mention John Bolton who made a habit of being seen with them. And, on the other hand, the American government refuses to include it on its list of designated terrorist groups.
Referring to their admission of involvement in the two recent acts of terrorism in Iran, Reza Nasri, an international lawyer, said in a tweet, “In light of this recent development, the UK, EU and US – along with Canada – should seriously consider revising their past decision and designate MEK again as a terrorist organization.”
In addition, Trita Parsi, executive vice president for Quincy Institute, tweeted, “Those who pushed for the MEK to get off the US terror list didn’t do so because they believed they had abandoned terrorism. They pushed for their delisting because they wanted the US to support the MEK’s terror activities. They wanted the MEK to be America’s terrorists.”
Americans’ refusal to re-list the terrorist group clearly demonstrates that their rhetoric of fighting terrorism is only a tool to advance the policies of the White House, no matter who holds its reins.
 

Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement confirmed that it has flown three unarmed drones towards the Karish gas field in the country’s territorial waters, sending a message to the Israeli regime, which disputes the maritime area.
“On Saturday afternoon, 7/2/2020, three unarmed drones of different sizes were launched towards the disputed area at the Karish field to carry out reconnaissance missions,” Hezbollah said in a statement on Saturday, Press TV reported.
“The mission has been accomplished, and the message delivered,” the resistance movement added.
This came after earlier on Saturday, the Israeli military claimed that its air defense forces had intercepted “three hostile UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), which approached the airspace over,” what it described as, “Israel’s economic waters.”
An Israeli “security source” also claimed that the regime had shot down three unarmed “hostile drones,” which had been flying from the direction of Lebanon towards gas rigs in the disputed field.
Hezbollah had warned in early June that the movement is “ready” to take action if the Lebanese government confirms that Israel is violating the maritime rights of the country, after a gas drilling ship arrived in disputed Mediterranean waters to conduct hydrocarbon exploration for Israel.
Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem told Reuters at that time that Hezbollah is ready to take action, “including by force,” against Israeli gas operations in the disputed waters once Beirut adopts a clearer policy.
“When the Lebanese state says that the Israelis are attacking our waters and our oil, then we are ready to do our part in terms of pressure, deterrence and the use of appropriate means – including force,” Qassem said.
The Tel Aviv regime and the international hydrocarbon exploration and production company that operated the vessel equally claimed the field in question falls within Israel’s so-called exclusive economic zone. Beirut rejects the claim.
 

Iran on Sunday marked the 34h anniversary of the downing of its passenger plane by a US Navy guided-missile cruiser over the Persian Gulf.
A memorial ceremony was held near Iran’s Hengam Island where an Airbus A300B2 of Iran’s flag carrier Iran Air went down after being hit by a missile fired from the USS Vincennes on July 3, 1988.
Participants on board a ship, including the families of the victims and local officials, tossed stalks of flowers into Iran’s territorial waters and chanted “Down with the US”.
The airliner had just taken off from Iran’s southern port city of Bandar Abbas at 10:17 a.m. local time (UTC 0330) with 274 passengers and 16 crew members aboard, and was flying inside an internationally recognized route to Dubai when the US cruiser fired two SM-2MR surface-to-air missiles at it, one of which hit the aircraft.
Following the attack, the plane disintegrated and crashed into the sea, killing all 290 on board, among them 66 children.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement on Twitter, commemorated the tragedy.
“After the crime committed by Americans in the Persian Gulf, none of the crew members of the United States’ USS Vincennes missile cruiser was prosecuted and even commander of the warship Captain William Rogers was granted a Legion of Merit on his retirement,” the ministry said.
In 1990, Captain Rogers was cleared of any wrongdoing and was awarded the medal by then US president George Bush for his “outstanding service”.
US officials claimed that the USS Vincennes had mistaken Iran Air Flight 655 for a warplane. This is while the warship was equipped with highly sophisticated radar systems and electronic battle gear, and the passenger plane was transmitting Mode III 6760 squawk code, typical of a civilian aircraft, and maintained radio contact in English with appropriate air traffic control facilities.