The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI; ) is an Iranian political organization based in France and Albania and was founded by Masoud Rajavi and Abolhasan BaniSadr. The organization is a political coalition calling to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran. The coalition is made up of different Iranian dissident groups, with its main member being the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK). Both organizations are considered to be led by Massoud Rajavi and his wife Maryam Rajavi. The NCRI is also recognized as the MEK's diplomatic wing opposing the Islamic Republic. In 2002, the NCRI exposed that “Tehran had built nuclear-related facilities.” It was listed as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, but was removed from this list in 2012 by the U.S. government. The NCRI is considered the largest political opposition to the current Iranian government. Platform's core concepts The core concepts of the organization's platform (to date) include: Elections based on the principle of universal suffrage; a pluralistic political system with free assembly, freedom of expression and respect for individual freedoms; the abolition of the death penalty; a separation of mosque and state, and prohibitions against religious discrimination; full gender equality for Iranian women; a westernization of the Iranian justice system, the elimination of sharia law, and reforms that provide for an array of western legal protections; adherence to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments that enshrine protections for the population, and a commitment to the equality of all nationalities (in particular autonomy for Iranian Kurdistan); safeguards for private property, investment and employment, and support for a market economy; a foreign policy based on the principle of “peaceful coexistence” with other countries; a rejection of nuclear development and possession of weapons of mass destruction as a whole. History President Abolhassan Banisadr was supportive of the MEK and believed the clerics should not govern Iran directly, and was removed from power. Both Massoud Rajavi and Banisdar escaped Iran in 1981 during a campaign by the Iranian government to eradicate the MEK from Iran. The NCRI was founded by Massoud Rajavi and Abolhassan Banisadr in 1981. Both co-signed a covenant outlining Banisadr “as the Republic’s president”, and of Rajavi “as the chairman both of the National Council and of the republic’s Provisional Government.” The covenant criticised the Islamic Republic as “dictatorial”, while proposing “a democratic, patriotic, and law-abiding government”. By 1983, the NCRI included the