Rajavi Prays for Iran, Calls for the Overthrow of Khomeini

The Associated Press
Thursday, June 12, 1986

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The leader of Iran's main opposition group visited the graves of holy martyrs of the Shiite Moslem sect and urged Iranians to overthrow the Khomeini regime, the state-run Iraqi News Agency reported Thursday.

The report was the first in Iraq on the activities of Massoud Rajavi, leader of the Mujahedeen, since he arrived in Baghdad from France on Saturday.

The Mujahedeen claim the move to Iraq was voluntary, a "new stage" in the fight to topple the Islamic fundamentalist regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeinei.

French observers in Paris, however, have said they believe Rajavi's departure was engineered by France in a bid to normalize relations with Iran and help win freedom for nine French hostages abducted by Moslem extremists in Lebanon.

Iran, which has been at war with Iraq since September 1980, is predominantly Shiite. Rajavi and his wife, Maryam, co-leader of the Mujahedeen, visited Shiite holy shrines in Najaf and Karbala, south of Baghdad, the agency said.

Iraqi television, which can reach parts of Iran, reported on the visits in a broadcast in Farsi, the Iranian language.

Khomeini lived 14 years in exile in Najaf. He lived briefly in Paris before the Shah fled into exile in January 1979.

Rajavi and his wife prayed at the grave of Imam Ali, cousin of Islam's Prophet Mohammed and revered by the Shiites as a holy martyr.

Rajavi also visited the tomb of Imam Ali's son, Hussein, in Karbala, and handed out a list of 12,000 names of Iranians allegedly killed by the authorities in Tehran, the agency said. He was quoted by the news agency as calling on Iranians to "bring down Khomeini and bring about peace and freedom.

"Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz told a news conference Tuesday in Paris that his country would provide facilities for Rajavi and his guerrillas to step up military operations inside Iran "to overthrow the government that wants to overthrow us."