Earlier this week the United States welcomed renewed efforts to relocate the residents of Camp Ashraf which has housed members of an exiled Iranian opposition group[MKO/MEK/PMOI] for years. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland noted the”safe arrival”last week of a sixth convoy of about 400 residents of Camp Ashraf to Camp Hurriya, ..
An Iranian opposition organisation said on Saturday it is ready to move another group of its Iraq-based members to a new site near Baghdad after a delay which has dragged on for several months…In return, Rajavi said she expects Washington to renew”its commitments to the approach to delisting”the PMOI aka MKO/MEK as a terrorist group..
The UN said it has a”roadmap”to resolve a dispute between Iraq and a group of Iranian exiles, but a senior official warned that Baghdad would act if there was no resolution to the row.About 1,200 members of the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, opposed to the regime in Tehran, have refused to move from their camp north of the Iraqi capital despite a UN-brokered accord with the government
Time is running out to find a sustainable solution. The government’s patience is wearing thin,”said Kobler, who heads the UN mission in Iraq (UNAMI).”Recent weeks have witnessed difficulties in maintaining dialogue between UNAMI and the residents, and between the residents and the government of Iraq, reinforcing a perception that the residents lack a genuine will”to move,..
It is unclear how far Treasury Department officials intend to push the probe .. But NBC News has obtained one possible clue: A small Pennsylvania-based speakers firm called Speakers Access wrote an email in September inviting a Washington based national security expert to speak at a conference in Geneva, Switzerland”on behalf of our client, National Council of Resistance of Iran, Foreign Affairs Committee.”..
An Iraq-based Iranian opposition group that is fixated on conspiracy theories allegedly carried out attacks in Iran and elsewhere for decades, but now relies on a different weapon: the press release.The United Nations mission here, which has been attempting to facilitate the exit of some 3,400 members of the opposition People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI) from Iraq, where they have been based for decades, has been the latest target of the group..
Several hundred Iranian exiles were traveling to a UN-approved site near Baghdad on Saturday after leaving Camp Ashraf, where Iranian opposition members have been based for decades.The move is part of a December 25 deal between the UN and Iraq..Iraq had previously aimed to close Camp Ashraf in Diyala province..But Iraqi premier Nuri al-Maliki said on December 21 that his government had agreed to extend the deadline to April
And Maliki also said that Iraq’s decision to close Camp Ashraf, which is occupied by the opposition People’s Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), is final.”The decision we made is irreversible,”Maliki said. He said that a United Nations representative was not permitted to visit Camp Ashraf, and that the PMOI aka MKO/MEK had also refused to implement a UN plan to shut down the camp, saying that this reinforced Iraq’s decision. ..
“In order to find a durable solution for the camp residents, it is essential that potential third countries indicate their willingness to receive them for resettlement,” Ban said. Iraq’s UN ambassador, Hamid al-Bayati, also called for international help to close the camp. “I would like to assure the Security Council that my government doesn’t want to force anybody to go back to Iran,” he said. But Bayati said the camp residents were preventing Iraqi forces …
“The primary and overall responsibility to deal with the situation in Camp Ashraf lies with the government of Iraq within its sovereignty,”Martin Kobler, the UN secretary general’s special representative for Iraq..”In agreement with the government, we are in continuous contact with all parties, including the residents of the camp and the members of the international community to facilitate a peaceful and durable solution,”Kobler said.