“This could be an exercise to convince Tehran that the U.S. plans to de-list the MKE and support them in a campaign of chaos inside Iran. This would turn the MKE into a bargaining chip the State Department could use to get concessions.”
They would be fools to think that. The regime knows that the Iranian people also hate MEK, and that MEK would be slaughtered. If the U.S. sides with MEK, we will lose the pro-American sentiments that most Iranians have today.
(Chaos means nothing to the regime; in fact if you’re waiting for the Mahdi, you welcome it.)
Listing or de-listing will not get concessions from the regime.
Reagan and Bush 41, as well as Israel, aided both sides in the Iran/Iraq war. This suggested a strategy to prolong the war and to maximize the damage to both belligerents.