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 TEHRAN
(Fars News Agency)- Iran's ambassador to Baghdad said that the Iraqi government has set a
six-month deadline for the terrorist group, the Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO)
to leave Iraq.
Speaking to FNA, Hassan Kazemi Qomi said the Iraqi government had passed a
legislation that would order the MKO to leave the country within six months and
prohibit it from conducting any activity in Iraq.
"The Iraqi government considers the terrorist group as a factor behind the
insecurity in Iraq," Kazemi Qomi added.
The Iranian envoy said that the Iraqi government has formed a committee to expel
the terrorist group from Iraq.
Kazemi Qomi said the presence of the group in Iraq will damage ties between the
two countries.
The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the
international community, including the United States.
The MKO is on the European Union's list of terrorist organizations subject to an
EU-wide assets freeze, and has been designated by the US government as a foreign
terrorist organization.
The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of
EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British
court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials
also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their
role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war.
A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in
Iraq and committing human rights violations.
According to Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under
torture and jail terms.
The group, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and
participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of
the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both
Iranian and Western targets.
Leaders of the group have been fighting to shed its terrorist tag after a series
of bloody anti-Western attacks in the 1970s, and nearly 30 years of violent
struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Yet, the group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the
revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic.
It killed several of Iran's new leaders in the early years after the revolution,
including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad
Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed
in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.
The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and
where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the
country.
The terrorist group joined Saddam's army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran
(1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and
soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.
Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a
pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the
United States, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.
The MKO has been in Iraq's Diyala province since the 1980s.
| Related Articles:
Acts of War
By Scott Ritter, TruthDig.com
The war between the United States and Iran is on. American taxpayer
dollars are being used, with the permission of Congress, to fund
activities that result in Iranians being killed and wounded, and Iranian
property destroyed. This wanton violation of a nation's sovereignty
would not be tolerated if the tables were turned and Americans were
being subjected to Iranian-funded covert actions that took the lives of
Americans, on American soil, and destroyed American property and
livelihood. Many Americans remain unaware of what is transpiring abroad
in their name. Many of those who are cognizant of these activities are
supportive of them, an outgrowth of misguided sentiment which holds Iran
accountable for a list of grievances used by the U.S. government to
justify the ongoing global war on terror. Iran, we are told, is not just
a nation pursuing nuclear weapons, but is the largest state sponsor of
terror in the world today.
Iran: Exiled Armed Group Abuses Dissident Members; Opposition Group Seeks
Recognition and Support in Western Capitals
(Paris, May 19, 2005) -- An armed Iranian opposition group in
exile, the Mojahedin Khalq Organization, has subjected dissident members to
torture and prolonged solitary confinement,
Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 28-page report,
"No Exit: Human
Rights Abuses Inside the MKO Camps," details how dissident
members of the shadowy Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) were tortured,
beaten and held in solitary confinement for years at military camps in Iraq
after they criticized the group's policies and undemocratic practices,
Iran to
UK: MKO ruling will isolate you
Iran says a decision by the British court to remove a ban on Mujahedin Khalq
Organization (MKO) would only isolate the UK government... "By adopting a policy
of supporting terrorist groups, it (Britain) is pursuing certain provisional
interests." -Press TV (June 2008)
Related Site:
Iran Interlink: Iran
Interlink has been established as a point of contact for families and friends of
members of the Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq (aka MKO, MEK, PMOI, NCR, NCRI, NLA,
MISS) which is now based in Iraq. Among its aims is "to inform as widely as
possible about the real nature of the Iranian Mojahedin Khalq cult and to act as
a pressure group in this regard."
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