However, Maryam Rajavi, the president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, commented on the last Iranian dissidents' transfer from Iraq to Albania and said, "This process is a strategic defeat for the regime in Tehran, where the bells rang marking the start of change [in Iran], attack and crawl operations."
She added, "The conspiracies and schemes to eliminate the MEK were defeated. The velayat-e faqih regime remained, along with its Ministry of Intelligence, its terrorism power and all its spies in Iraq who were hungry for the blood of MEK members, dragging their tails between their legs in shame."
For his part, an Iranian dissident who spent time in Camp Ashraf in Iraq but currently resides in Paris, told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, "The suffering the MEK members had to endure in Iraq over the past 13 years cannot be described. But we can describe the steadfastness with which we confronted Mullahs' attempts to annihilate us; we were victorious and the dictatorial regime was defeated."
Of course, the MEK's departure from Iraq after they had been present there for 30 years has eliminated the threat posed against the Iranian regime, since the MEK's proximity to Iranian interests in Iraq could not have been easy for Tehran.
After 2013, Iraq's Shiite governments missed the chance to take advantage of both the presence and the departure of MEK members in strengthening their position vis-a-vis neighboring Iran, thereby enhancing Iraq's national interests in the midst of regional rivalries over Iraq.
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