Iraqi Army Chief Lieutenant General Babakir Zebari has announced Iraq’s plans to expel members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) by the end of 2011.
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| Iraq’s Army Chief Babakir Zebari Lieutenant General Babakir Zebari |
Members of the MKO are not only the enemies of Iran but they are also the adversaries of Baghdad, Zebari said in a meeting with Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Jafari in the Iranian capital of Tehran late Monday, IRNA reported.
Zebari also noted that the Iraqi officials are seeking “stronger” ties with the Islamic Republic.
During the meeting, IRGC chief Brig. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari expressed his optimism that Iraqi authorities would adopt concrete steps to remove MKO’s Iraq-based terrorist Camp Ashraf from the country and expel its members, who are “the common foes of both nations of Iran and Iraq,” as soon as possible.
Jafari said that Iran and Iraq could thwart the threats of their enemies “through unity and cooperation between the armed forces of the two counties.”
The top IRGC commander added that the US and the Israeli regime are angry at the steady expansion of Iran-Iraq ties, adding that they have, however, failed in their attempts to sow discord between Tehran and Baghdad.
Members of the terrorist MKO fled to Iraq in 1986, where they enjoyed the support of executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up Camp Ashraf.
The group has carried out numerous acts of terror and violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.
The terror organization is also known to have cooperated with Saddam in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds in the north.
Tehran has repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to expel the group, but the US has been blocking the expulsion by pressuring the Iraqi government.