Higgins defends links to Iranian opposition group

Former Mayo Senator, TD and MEP Jim Higgins has defended an Iranian opposition group of which he has been a long-time supporter after RTÉ News reported that the Department of Foreign Affairs had concerns about the organisation.

Mr Higgins has for several decades been a vocal supporter of Maryam Rajavi, the French-based president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a coalition of groups seeking to replace the clerical regime that has run Iran since 1979.

The Department of Foreign Affairs issued a statement recently to RTÉ News saying it had no engagement with the NCRI or its affiliated group Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) on the basis of "concerns about some aspects of its organisation and activities". It did not detail the concerns. The RTÉ report came after a group of Irish parliamentarians attended an NCRI congress in Paris in May.

Mr Higgins believes the Iranian embassy in Dublin was behind the report on RTÉ and stresses the NCRI’s peaceful credentials. 

“Hilary Clinton took the group off the US list of terrorist groups when she was American Secretary of State,” said Higgins.

The speaker list at NCRI gatherings in Paris suggests strong backing from the American political establishment: Republicans Mike Pence, John Bolton and Newt Gingrich have all attended meetings, Higgins explained. From the Democratic Party, former US Congressman Patrick Kennedy has also attended previous meetings of the NCRI while former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani has also spoken at NCRI events.

Ms Rajavi and her husband have been key figures in the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran, or Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), the largest constituent group in the NCRI coalition. The MEK was a leftist group established in the 1960s to oppose the Pahlavi dynasty, before falling foul of the Islamic clerical regime which took power in 1979.

Mr Higgins stresses that the NCRI is offering a democratic alternative for Iran. 

“Within six months of a change of regime there will be free elections. We have a ten-point plan which guarantees the fundamentals of free speech, freedom of religious practise, human rights and women’s rights.” 

Jim Higgins is clearly important to the NCRI: his endorsement of Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan for a new Iran was used extensively on social media in the run up to a march in Berlin in June 2024.

As an MEP, Mr Higgins chaired a European-American Conference convened in 2012 by the Friends of Free Iran intergroup in the European Parliament, also addressed by Ms Rajavi. He continues to be a key figure in Ireland for the group, marshalling local political support. Higgins said he attended a meeting in Buswells Hotel  in Dublin five weeks ago which was attended by 28 current members of the Oireachtas as well as numerous former members.

“They [NCRI] invite parliamentarians from the UK and Ireland to be part and parcel of their framework,” he told the Western People.

Speaking up against the Iranian regime is potentially dangerous. A former MEP, Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a founder of Spain's far-right Vox party and vocal Iran critic, blamed the Iranian regime when he was shot in the face in November 2023 in Madrid.

Higgins says he’s not worried about being attacked in a similar manner. 

“They can get me in Ballyhaunis if they want!” he jokes.

Mr Higgins is following matters inside Iran closely in the wake of recent Israeli and American attacks.

“The IRGC [Revolutionary Guard Corps] has been hanging people. In Paris three weeks ago they showed me photos of six people on death row who have now been executed. On faint suspicion dissidents are jailed. The conditions are appalling. They have public whipping, Tuesday hangings and massive incarceration.” 

While Mr Higgins thinks the situation is “very fluid” and “no one can foresee” what will happen, he doesn’t believe outside intervention will work. 

“Since 2004 I have been saying that outside intervention won’t work. All revolutions have to start from within.”