TEHRAN - A political commentator says certain Western countries continue to nurture and use terrorist groups such as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MKO/MEK) to advance their destructive agendas against independent countries.

Canadian writer and activist Mark Taliano told Press TV on Sunday that the West plays the terrorist card in pursuit of its own interests, stressing that Washington and its allies continue to resuscitate and fortify terrorist proxies.

The West’s support for the notorious MKO group is consistent with its support for international terrorism, Taliano said.

“The West and its allies train, support, arm, command and control these terrorist assets. They play them as cards, and deploy them beneath shrouds of secrecy and disinformation,” he noted.

The MKO has carried out numerous terrorist attacks against Iranian civilians and government officials since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist attacks over the past four decades, about 12,000 have fallen victim to the group's acts of terror.

“West deploying terrorists beneath shrouds of secrecy and disinformation,” Canadian commentator says

During former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s war on Iran between 1980 and 1988, MKO members were armed by Iraq and fought alongside Ba'ath forces against the Islamic Republic. 

After the war, the U.S. and the European Union removed the MKO from their lists of terrorist organizations in order to use them as proxies against Iran. The terrorists enjoy freedom of activity in the U.S. and Europe, and even hold meetings with top American and European officials.

Faced with the growing anger among many Iraqis who had suffered at the hands of Saddam's forces and MKO henchmen, the terrorists were relocated by the U.S. from their Camp Ashraf in Iraq’s Diyala Province in 2016 and sent to Albania, from where they continue their anti-Iran activities.

Taliano said the West, in its policy against sovereign nations, commits crimes against humanity and uses terrorists as an appendage. 

The West’s operations against sovereign countries are multi-faceted, and include massive propaganda through media cartels and various assets on the ground, he said. 

Olsi Jazexhi, an Albanian historian, believes that terrorist groups like Jabhat al-Nusra, Daesh and MEK are mercenaries of Israel and the U.S. to undermined the Muslim world.

 "Jabhat al-Nusra, Daesh and MEK are front organizations of Israeli and American imperialism against the Muslim world," Jazexhi tells the Tehran Times.

"Even though Israel officially has not shown any direct relation with MEK, unofficially, it as well as the Evangelical U.S. administration of President Trump used MEK and its experience in terrorism and false flag attacks as a tool for attacking and blackmailing Iran," the Albanian historian notes.

“West intends to balkanize Syria”

Taliano pointed to the presence of the so-called civil defense group White Helmets in Syria, emphasizing that its members are essentially the assets of al-Qaeda and Daesh terrorist groups in order to depict savage imperial barbarism as “humanitarian”.

He said the West is currently supporting al-Qaeda and its affiliates in Syria’s militant-held northwestern province of Idlib.

The Canadian pundit referred to the so-called Caesar Act as well as other U.S. and EU sanctions as collective punishment of Syrians living in government-controlled areas.

“Military actions involving active warfare, terrorist attacks, occupation, illegal bombardment of Syrians, coupled with economic warfare and myriad strategies of deception, all serve West’s purpose to destroy and balkanize Syria,” Taliano said.