Fars News Agency

Iran, Iraq cooperate to expel MKO from the region

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani conferred on Thursday with his Iraqi counterpart Ayad al-Samarraie on expansion of mutual and regional cooperation. Iran, Iraq cooperate to expel MKO from the region

Speaking to the reporters in a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Larijani expressed the hope that close cooperation between Iran and Iraq will lead to expulsion of anti-Iran terrorist group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), from the region.

Larijani told reporters that Tehran-Baghdad security cooperation would help expel the MKO members from Iraq where they are held in Camp Ashraf.

"We hope mutual talks on various issues will help improve regional security and expulsion of terrorist groups including MKO from the entire region," he said, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

The two sides also reached agreements on several political, economic and border issues.

Ali Larijani received his Iraqi counterpart Ayad al-Samarraie and his accompanying delegation on Thursday morning.

Al-Samarraie announced that he had already extended an invitation to Larijani to visit Iraq.

October 5, 2009 0 comments

Iran

Jalili Accuses Germany of Backing MKO

Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili accused Germany of supporting anti-Iran terrorist group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), by allowing the Jalili Accuses Germany of Backing MKO group to have "bases" in that country.

Talking to the online site of the Hamburg-based weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, Jalili said, "The Berlin government is promoting (MKO) terror" … by permitting it to have "bases in Germany."
The top Iranian official held the MKO responsible for attacks in his country, the Islamic republic news agency reported…
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Jalili Accuses Germany of Backing MKO

Meanwhile, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator said he was cautiously upbeat on prospects for progress at next week’s nuclear talks in Geneva, Switzerland, featuring Iranian officials and diplomatic representatives of the five UN veto powers plus Germany.

"I am traveling "with optimism to the negotiations but we are also realists," added Jalili.
He stressed although Iranian officials would discuss the nuclear question at Thursday’s meeting in Switzerland, it would not include the issue of uranium enrichment.

He vowed Iran would "never surrender its right" of having a nuclear enrichment program.
Jalili made clear Tehran did not fear western threats of tightening sanctions.

The Iranian official said it was up to the US and Europe to make concessions in the stalemate over Tehran’s nuclear program.

"It’s up to the West now to make a move," Jalili added.

September 27, 2009 0 comments

Iraq

Iraqi Court Receives 5,000 Complaints against MKO, Former Baghdad Regime

Iraq’s supreme criminal court assigned to review crimes done by the former Iraqi Baath regime during the 1991 uprising (Shabaniyah Intifada) announced that it has received 5,000 complaints filed against the regime and anti Iran terrorist group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).

The court confirmed in its first session that it has received 5,000 authentic and verifiable complaints from the people of the northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan.

The families of the victims as well as those disabled during the suppression of the uprising have asked for chasing and punishing those responsible for the crimes done during the suppression of intifada in northern and southern Iraq, the Iranian website Habilian reported.

The court also issued law suits for 112 members of the former Baath regime, the most prominent of them Ali Hassan Al-Majid, known as the Chemical Ali.

The Shabaniyah Intifada aimed to free Iraq from rule of the Baathist regime and to stand against the US raids and possible occupation of the country in 1991. The Intifada succeeded in setting free nine southern Iraqi provinces, but after Iraq’s withdrawal from Kuwait, the Shiite population came under a savage attack by the Iraqi army which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of them.

At the time, the MKO played such an outstanding role in suppressing the uprising that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein described the MKO leader, Masoud Rajavi, as his savior and allocated a $30-million monthly budget to the terrorist organization until he was deposed in 2003.
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.

The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s.

September 14, 2009 0 comments

Members of the MEK

MKO agent arrested in Northern Iran

Iranian security forces have arrested an MKO ringleader and disbanded his cell in the northern city of Qazvin, a provincial judiciary official announced on Monday.

“An individual, affiliated with an anti-revolutionary party and active in anti-Islamic Republic propaganda, was arrested,”Seyfollah Maleki, Interrogator of Qazvin’s public and revolutionary court, told reporters.

Identifying the inmate as”A.J”, Maleki announced that the detainee who is a physician had arranged meetings to propagate against the Islamic Republic for the benefit of the anti-Iran terrorist group, the Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO).

The detainee has also been charged with procuring and distributing statements to encourage and provoke people into illegal gatherings and rallies.

Insulting Iran’s leadership as well as the countries authorities and high-ranking clerics are among other charges filed against the 38-year old arrestee.

Maleki also announced that the security forces have arrested 20 individuals in connection with the case, adding that all the inmates have admitted to their crimes.

September 1, 2009 0 comments

Iran

Iran condemns US double standards on terrorism

TEHRAN (Xinhua) — Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Tuesday that the US administration has taken double-standard stance on terrorism, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Referring to the United States’ approach to the anti-Iran "terror group," the Mojahedeen Khalq Organization (MKO), Larijani said that "it was obvious to us that the US (on one hand) has been using the group as a tool… and (on the other hand) Americans said that they have nothing to do with MKO because it is a terrorist organization."

"A recent report about the US policy on the MKO, released by a research center affiliated to the US Defense Ministry, declared that Washington has not treated the group as a terrorist organization… it is a political scandal for Washington," Larijani was quoted as saying.

The Mojahedeen, a self-claimed Marxist and Islamic movement, was founded in 1965 in opposition to the shah of Iran and has subsequently fought to oust the Islamic regime which took power in the 1979 revolution.

In 1980s, when former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was at war with Iran, the group set up Camp Ashraf in northeast Iraqi town of Khalis about 120 kilometers west of the Iranian border and 60 kilometers north of Baghdad as a base to operate against the Tehran government.

Earlier this year, Iraqi National Security Adviser Muwafaq Al-Rubaie underlined his country’s decisiveness to implement an earlier decision for closing the headquarters of the anti-Iran terrorist group in Diyala Province.

Iranian government says the MKO is "an organized group which has never denied using weapons and arms." It is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the United States.

August 26, 2009 0 comments

Terrorist groups and the MEK

Pro-Baath Group Opposes Calls for MKO Expulsion

Pro-Baath Group Opposes Majority Calls for MKO Expulsion

An Iraqi group with records of cooperation with Iraq’s former Baath regime announced that it supports presence of the anti-Iran terror group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) inside Iraq.

The Iraqi Habilian website reported that the group, Islamic al-Sadr Society, which formed in Lebanon’s southern city of Tyre in 2002 announced in a statement that it supports MKO’s stay inside Iraq.

Iraq’s security forces took control of the MKO’s training base at Camp Ashraf – about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad – last month and detained dozens of the members of the terrorist group.
The Iraqi authorities also changed the name of the military center from Camp Ashraf to the Camp of New Iraq and underlined expulsion of the group’s members from Iraq.

The society which is not more than a 5 roomed building had first become a gathering center for former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s opposition figures and refugees inside Lebanon, the website said.

Yet, former Iraqi opposition figures say that later the group recruited Iraqis and gathered information about anti-Baath Iraqis via detailed questionnaires.

Habilian reported that "Valid Mayahi" an opponent of Saddam regime was assassinated at the center of the suspicious group. After Mayahi’s death, 100 application forms and questionnaires with data and information about identification of anti-Saddam figures disappeared and were later transferred to the Baath regime’s intelligence apparatus.

The report also noted that the group’s formation was aimed at identification of anti-government figures and transferring their list to the Intelligence ministry.

August 24, 2009 0 comments

Iraq

Iraq Conferring with UN on Expulsion of MKO Members

Iraqi Ambassador to Tehran Mohammad Majid Sheikh announced on Tuesday that the Baghdad government is consulting with the UN over the expulsion of the terrorist Envoy : Iraq Conferring with UN on Expulsion of MKO Members Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) members from the country.

"We have had consultations with the UN to find a place for transferring the members of the group and we have announced that the Iraqi soil will not be a platform for terrorist operations against other countries, specially the neighbors including Iran," Sheikh told FNA.

Referring to the official announcement of the Iraqi government that the members of the MKO can go to a third country or return to Iran, he underlined, "The Iraqi government will not grant political asylum to these people."

As regards a number of MKO members who have committed crimes against the Iraqi people, he said that they will be tried in an Iraqi court.

He stressed that no country is ready to accept the MKO members, and said they will be transferred to a place far from Iranian borders until their fate is decided.

Iraqi security forces took control of the training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf – about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad – last month and detained dozens of the members of the terrorist group.
The Iraqi authority also changed the name of the military center from Camp Ashraf to the Camp of New Iraq.

The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s. The Iraqi government and parliament has announced that it would not tolerate the group anymore and is seeking to expel the group from the country in the near future.

The anti-Iran terror group has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many international entities and countries.

Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.

A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.

According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.

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 Sadd
am 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.

The MKO was put on the US terror list in 1997 by the then President, Bill Clinton, but since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group has been strongly backed by the Washington Neocons, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.

August 20, 2009 0 comments

Iran

Iran Calls on Iraq to Extradite Interpol-Wanted MKO Members

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki urged Iraqi officials to extradite to Iran those criminal members of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) wanted by the Interpol.

Speaking in a meeting with Iraqi Ambassador to Tehran Majid Sheikh, Mottaki referred to the friendly relations between Tehran and Baghdad and reiterated that such relations show that the terrorist camp (Camp Ashraf) should not be present in the Iraqi soil.

The anti-Iran terror group has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many international entities and countries.

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 Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).
Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.
A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.
According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.
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.
The MKO was put on the US terror list in 1997 by the then President, Bill Clinton, but since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group has been strongly backed by the Washington Neocons, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.
Fars News, August 19, 2009
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8805270758

August 20, 2009 0 comments

Members of the MEK

MKO Leaders Forcing Members into Hunger Strike

Leaders of the anti-Iran terrorist group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), force the group members into hunger strike in a bid to exert pressure on the world public opinion and international bodies.

Reports from inside the camp said that the move by the MKO leaders is aimed at securing their stay inside Camp Ashraf (now known as the Camp of New Iraq) – the MKO’s main training center and headquarters – by any means.

Amid seizure of the MKO training base by Iraqi security forces, leaders of the terrorist group started forming a human chain against the Iraqis in a bid to increase costs of the camp’s seizure for Iraqi police and army.

The MKO top figures, including ringleader Masoud Rajavi, had assumed that the former US administration would issue the permission for attacking Iran so they could fight against the Islamic Republic together with the US forces.

Now the single goal of the terrorist group is preserving the training camp.

The anti-Iran terror group has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many international entities and countries.

Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.

A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.

According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.

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 Hussein 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.

August 18, 2009 0 comments

Iraq

10 major Iraqi parties support MKO expulsion

10 major Iraqi parties announced by issuing a statement their full support for the expulsion of MKO terrorist group from this country.

10 major Iraqi parties announced by issuing a statement their full support for the expulsion of MKO terrorist group from this country. According to Fars News Agency, the statement which was issued by the Coordinating Committee of national and political parties and forces of Iraq in England, says: in late last July Iraqi army and armed forces tried to enter camp Ashraf in Diyali province in order to find control over the camp in account that the camp is a part of the Iraqi soil and a foreign rebellious force belonging to MKO which is an opponent of the Iranian government is based there.

This terrorist organization has been present in Iraq during the era of Saddam in power and has played a key role in assisting the Iraqi dictator in suppressing 1991 Shiites Intifada and massacre of Iraqi Kurds and continued this role until after the fall of the criminal regime in Iraq in 2003.

The statement also states: Military conflicts at the time of doing this operation were the result of the failure of talks with elements of the organization for peacefully entering the camp and of course this operation was within the framework of the security pact signed between Baghdad and Washington over power transmission to Iraqi forces which led to some casualties for both sides.

Participant parties who wrote and signed the letter include the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Assembly, Al-da’avah Party (Party of Islamic invitation), Democratic Party, Union of Iraqi Kurdistan, the Iraqi Islamic Party, Iraqi Communist Party, and National Democratic Alliance, the Communist Party of Iraqi Kurdistan, Organization of feyli Kurds and democratic movement Iraqi Ashouries.

August 17, 2009 0 comments

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