Chinaview.cn

Iraq wants Iranian opposition out

BAGHDAD, Xinhua – Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said on Monday that Iraq wanted to expel the Iranian rebel Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO) that opposes the Islamic regime.

Talabani made the remarks in a joint news conference with Iran’s former president and current Expediency Council head Ali Akbar Hashemi who arrived here earlier in the day for a visit.

Speaking to the reporters, Talabani accused the MKO, also known as the PMOI (People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran) of supporting former Saddam Hussein regime and Iraq wants Iranian opposition camp out committing crimes against Iraqis.

"We here in Iraq, our constitution prohibit the presence of any foreign armed group in Iraq and the Iraqi people know that this organization is terrorist one," said the Iraqi president, adding "the Iraqi people want them out from Iraq."

MKO, a main militant group which was founded in 1981 with an aim to establish "a democratic and secular government" in Iran, bases in Iraq’s Diyala province in a camp named Camp Ashraf, which contains more than 3,000 Iranians opponents and their families.

The Shiite-dominated Iraqi government repeatedly demands MKO members to be removed from the country.

After the U.S.-led invasion, the U.S. troops disarmed the MKO fighters and since then, the camp became under the U.S. military police protection for five years before the Iraqi government partially took over security responsibility in the camp.

This is Rafsanjani’s first visit to Iraq since Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1979.

Talabani met with the former Iranian president in his residence at the edge of the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad that houses the Iraqi government offices and some foreign embassies, including the U.S. one.

Rafsanjani is also expected to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other top Iraqi officials before touring holy cities in Iraq.

At the news conference, Rafsanjani said that his country "is entirely ready to support and cooperate with the Iraqi brotherly people."

Iraq and Iran fought a bloody eight-year war in 1980s, resulting in the loss of one million lives. The relation, however, has been picking up since the Saddam Hussein regime was toppled in2003 and the Shiite came into power.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/03/content_10930887.htm

March 3, 2009 0 comment

MEK Camp Ashraf

Iraq to take over security control at Iranian opposition camp

The Iraqi government will take over security responsibility for Iranian opposition Camp Ashraf on Jan. 1 when the U.S.-Iraqi security pact comes into force, a U.S. embassy statement said on Monday.

"With the end of the UNSCR mandate for the Coalition Forces in Iraq, the Government of Iraq will assume security responsibility for Camp Ashraf and its residents as of Jan. 1, 2009," the statement said.

The statement also clarified that a U.S. force will maintain presence in the Camp which is located in Diala province in northeast of Baghdad and hosts an Iranian opposition group of Mojahedin Khalq.

It said that the U.S. troops "will continue to assist the Government of Iraq in carrying out its assurances of humane treatment of the residents of Camp Ashraf."

"The U.S. Government and Government of Iraq will work with appropriate international organizations to assist the camp residents in securing a safe future."

Camp Ashraf contains more than 3,000 Iranians from the Mojahedin Khalq opponents and their families. The Iranian organization had been used by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime to fight the neighboring Shiite state of Iran.

After the U.S.-led invasion, the U.S. troops disarmed the organization fighters and since then, the camp became under the U.S. military police protection for five years.

The Shiite-dominated Iraqi government repeatedly demands Mojahedin Khalq people to be removed from the country.

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December 31, 2008 0 comment

Bulgaria

Bulgaria to decide new Iraqi mission in 2 weeks

SOFIA, Jan. 14 (Xinhuanet) — The Bulgarian government will make a decision of sending a non-combat unit to an Iraqi refugee camp in two weeks, Defense Minister Veselin Bliznakov revealed on Saturday.

Bliznakov told the local Darik radio that there is already a consensus on this issue within the three-party ruling coalition and the government is to decide on the deployment of the non-combat unit of 154 soldiers to Ashraf in the next two weeks.

The decision is expected to be passed successfully by the Parliament later, said Bliznakov.

The unit will not stay there for more than one year, stressed the minister, nor it will be the only one sent to Iraq by Bulgariain the future.

The fifth Bulgarian peacekeeping unit in Iraq, which all returned to Bulgaria by Dec. 30, 2005, will be officially disbanded on Jan. 27, and this form of Bulgarian participation in Iraqi reconstruction will finish then, said Bliznakov.

Just one day ago, Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev also made a statement in Parliament that Bulgaria should not and can not withdraw from the process in Iraq, as its national interests require its participation in the stabilization and restoration of Iraq, within the framework of the relevant solutions of the Security Council of the United Nations.

chinaview.cn – 2006.1.5

January 16, 2006 0 comment