Mehr News Agency

Illegal presence of MKO terror camp will end by December 2011

No excuse to extend military presence of Americans

Former Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari has said that the security agreement signed by Iraq and the United States will never be extended.

Jaafari, who is the leader of the Iraqi Shiite coalition, made the remarks during an interview with the Mehr News Agency. His remarks were later translated into English.

The U.S. has been left with no excuse to extend its military presence in the country beyond December 2011, and the security agreement will never be extended, he stated.

“The Iraqi people want foreign forces to leave Iraq, and the members of the parliament who represent the nation will never approve the extension of the security agreement or a new security agreement with Washington,” Jaafari noted. “This is a national demand, and we no longer want foreign forces to stay in Iraq.”

Judicial rulings issued for a number of MKO members
Elsewhere in the interview, Jaafari announced that judicial rulings have been issued for a number of members of the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), who are based in Iraq.

“Lawsuits have been filed against a number of the members of the terrorist MKO group, and rulings have been issued for them. And it has been emphasized that their presence in Iraq is illegal,” he stated.

“In our view, a political refugee in Iraq, no matter what country he has come from, should not be armed. As a matter of fact, if this person lays down arms, he can live peacefully in Iraq, otherwise he should leave Iraqi soil,” Jaafari added.

The Iraqi government “will never allow MKO members to take up arms against any country, particularly the neighboring countries, including the Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkey,” he said.

On the number of the Camp Ashraf residents, the Iraqi officials stated, “No accurate estimate of the number of these people is available since the number of them, their names, and their ranks keep changing. A number of MKO members have no option left but to continue cooperation with the organization. Some of them have even been killed after they broke away from the organization and stopped cooperating with it.”

On September 20, Iraqi Finance Minister Baqir Jabr Alzubaidi said that Baghdad will put the criminal leaders of the terrorist group on trial before expelling them.
The Iraqi people will never overlook the atrocities that the members of this group have committed, Alzubaidi stated.

Iraq has expressed concern over Bahrain crackdown

Asked about the crackdown on the people of Bahraini, Jaafari said, Iraq has expressed concern over the situation in Bahrain and have called for a compromise to be made between the government and protesters.

September 27, 2011 0 comment

Iraq

senior Iraqi cleric: MKO must leave Iraq by 2012

Leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, Ammar Hakim, has said that the members of the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) based in Iraq must leave the country by the end of 2011.

Leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, Ammar Hakim Hakim, who had travelled to Iran to attend the fifth meeting of the Ahl al-Bayt World Assembly, made the remarks during a meeting with Grand Ayatollah Abdul Karim Mousavi Ardebili in the holy city of Qom on Friday.

Hakim also said that Tehran has announced the names of 100 MKO members who must stand trial if they return to Iran.
Commenting on the formation of the government in Iraq, he stated that despite the pressure being exerted on the country, Baghdad could move through that crucial stage thanks to public support.
He also said that the enemies of Iraq are incessantly making efforts to create stumbling blocks to the country.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Hakim stated that the security situation in Iraq has improved and the Iraqi forces have become more equipped and are capable of identifying terrorists.
And the death toll from terrorist attacks in Iraq has decreased, he added.
He also said that efforts are underway to create understanding among various political groups in Iraq and to help them reach a consensus on internal and external issues.
On the developments occurring in certain regional countries, the ISC leader stated that Iraq is keeping a close eye on the events unfolding in the countries which have been experiencing pro-democracy uprisings and has made efforts to help stabilize the situation in Syria as well.
Hakim also held separate meetings with a number of other grand ayatollahs based in Qom, including Lotfollah Safi Golpayegani, Nasser Makarem Shirazi, Hossein Nouri Hamedani, Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, Sadeq Hosseini Shirazi, Mohammad Javad Alavi Tabataba’i Boroujerdi, and Hossein Vahid Khorasani on Friday.
Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani, in his meeting with Hakim, said that various political groups in Iraq should put aside differences.
In his meeting with Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, Hakim said it is necessary that all Iraqi officials stand by each other and make endeavors to serve the people.

September 17, 2011 0 comment

Iran

Intelligence Minister: MKO is in Decline

Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi has said that the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) is on the decline.

“Monafeqin (MKO) is declining, but this does not mean that the desperate attempts of this terrorist group against the great Iranian people have been abandoned,” Moslehi stated in Tehran on Thursday.

He also said that Iran’s intelligence apparatus is keeping a close eye on the moves that terrorist groups are making.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Moslehi warned the country’s officials against the activities of the MKO members, saying these terrorists are making endeavors to achieve their evil goals through recruiting members.

He went on to say that the forces of imperialism have always been seeking to deal a detrimental blow to Iran’s Islamic establishment through this terrorist organization.

“We even have information that the hegemonistic powers helicopter money and whatever required by terrorist groups to them,” the Iranian minister added.

Moslehi also said that terrorist groups in various parts of the world, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and the occupied territories are being funded by U.S. dollars and European euros.

June 26, 2011 0 comment

Iraq

Zebari:Iraq has decided to close Camp Ashraf

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari says the decision to shut down the Camp Ashraf has been made by his country’s government.

Camp Ashraf is a place in Iraq, where the members of the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization, have been confined since the fall of the Baathist regime in 2003.

Speaking to the Mehr News Agency in Baghdad, Zebari said that Iraq has asked the international institutions and European countries to accept the MKO members after they are deported.
Ibrahim Jafari, a former Iraqi prime minister and a sitting lawmaker, also says the demand for expulsion of MKO was made by all Iraqi groups and people.

Since 2003, when Saddam Hussein was outsted, the Iraqi people have sought the expulsion of the terrorist group from their country, Jafari told the Mehr News Agency.

The Iraqi people have no positive image of the MKO members and that is the reason behind their demand, he noted.

In addition, an Iraqi news agency recently reported that during a telephone conversation with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Zebari said the Iraqi government had decided to expel the terrorist group within six months.

Thousands of Iraqis recently held demonstrations in front of Camp Ashraf, in which they demanded that the Iraqi government deport all the MKO members residing in the country.

The Saddam regime used MKO forces as mercenaries in suppressing dissident Shias and Kurds in south and northern Iraq.

May 16, 2011 0 comment

Iran

Iran Arrests Mojahedin Khalq Terror team

Assassins of Nuclear scientists will be brought to justice

A number of people involved in the recent attacks on two nuclear scientists in Tehran have been arrested, Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi announced in Qom on Friday.

On Monday, two prominent physicists were targeted by terrorists in two separate bombings. Professor Majid Shahriari was killed and Professor Fereydoun Abbasi Davani was injured in the attacks. The two academics were both on their way to work at Shahid Beheshti University in northern Tehran when they were attacked. The police say that in both incidents, terrorists riding motorcycles attached magnetic bombs to the physicists’ cars.

The attacks came ahead of the talks between Iran and the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany), which will be held in Geneva from December 6 to 7.

Moslehi stated that the Mossad, the CIA, and MI6 were involved in the terrorist incidents.

“Those who were cooperating with these agencies… had more plans, but they were stopped,” he added.

“Through the arrest of these people, we have found new clues to arrest the others behind the incidents,” Moslehi stated, but did not mention the number of people taken into custody.

“The enemy should be aware that they will get nowhere with these actions,” he noted.
80 anti-Iran organizations based in U.S.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Moslehi said that 80 organizations that are seeking to overthrow the Islamic establishment of Iran are based in the United States.
It is estimated that $2 billion is allocated to these organizations annually, he stated.

The intelligence minister added, “The enemy has a long-term plan in the area of soft war and has spent over $17.7 billion in order to topple the sacred establishment of the Islamic Republic over the past 19 years.”

December 5, 2010 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Official ridicules MKO terrorists claim of new nuclear facility in Iran

The director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran dismissed a claim by the Mojahedin Khalq Organization that Iran is building a new nuclear enrichment facility near the city of Qazvin. Official ridicules MKO terrorists claim of new nuclear facility in Iran

“In Iran there is no nuclear facility with its own specific definition which has not been declared to the agency (the International Atomic energy Agency),” Ali Akbar Salehi told the Mehr News Agency.

Mocking the MKO for such naïve reports, he said, “If they have news of such a thing they can inform.”

September 12, 2010 0 comment

Iraq

Mojahedin Khalq have no place in Iraq

Iraq FM: Baghdad has taken series of measures to establish sovereignty over Camp Ashraf

TEHRAN, Jan. 8 (MNA) — Iran and Iraq have made three important agreements for resolving the disputes over their borders, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Thursday.
Iraq FM: Baghdad has taken series of measures to establish sovereignty over Camp Ashraf
Mottaki made the remarks during a joint press conference with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari in Baghdad.

“Border guards will meet within one week. Secondly, the technical groups will hold a meeting in the border city of Qasr-e Shirin within two weeks, and thirdly, a different technical committee on the two countries’ water borders will hold a meeting in Khorramshahr within three weeks,” Mottaki stated.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he said the Iranian and Iraqi border forces are stationed at “their places” near the Al-Fakkah oil field and expressed hope that the technical committee would start erecting the fences along the border to help everything revert to normal.

He went on to say that Tehran-Baghdad relations are friendly and based on respect.

Those who seek to benefit from undermining these relations will get nowhere, he added.

He made the remarks in response to the recent propaganda by some U.S. and Arab media outlets, which claimed that Iranian soldiers had crossed the Iraqi border and seized an Iraqi oil field.

However, Iran rejected the claims and announced that the well in question is not located in Iraqi territory.

The Al-Fakkah oil field is one of the many joint fields that Iran shares with Iraq. Iranian and Iraqi officials have concluded agreements over the past few months to develop the Paydar, Paydar-Gharb, Naftshahr, Azar, Dehloran, and Azadegan joint wells and other joint wells.

The two countries also recently agreed to set up an arbitration commission to clear up the misunderstanding over the borderline well.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Zebari said, “We have agreed to normalize the border situation between the two countries and return to the previous situation.”

He described Mottaki’s visit to Baghdad as an “indication that there is an honest desire to find solutions to the border dispute.”

He went on to say that Baghdad is determined to expand its ties with Tehran.

On the Iraq-based terrorist group Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), Zebari said Baghdad will never allow any armed group to use Iraqi territory as a base to attack its neighbors.

He added that Baghdad has taken a series of measures to establish its sovereignty over Camp Ashraf, where the terrorists are currently being held.

The MKO has been listed as a terrorist organization by many international organizations and countries, including the United States.

The terrorist group targeted Iranian government officials and civilians in Iran and abroad in the early 1980s. The MKO also attempted an unsuccessful invasion of Iran in the last days of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in 1988.

In addition, the MKO was involved in massacres of Iraqis under the direction of the Baathist regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

During a separate meeting on Thursday, Mottaki and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani discussed ways to improve bilateral relations between the two countries.

January 11, 2010 0 comment

Iraq

Baghdad determined to expel Mujahedin

Iraqi National Security Advisor Mouwafak Al-Rubaie has said that Baghdad is determined to expel the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization from Iraq.

“Baghdad has made the final decision not to allow the group to stay on its soil,” Al-Rubaie told the Mehr News Agency in an interview published on Monday.

The Iraqi national security advisor said Iraq has offered two options to the MKO: “Either a voluntary return to Iran or (they must) choose a third country.”

He added, “There is no other way.”

The Iraqi Constitution prohibits the presence of terrorist groups in the country, he noted.

Al-Rubaie said Iraq is conducting negotiations with certain countries that may be willing to accept MKO members.

Asked whether the Iraqi police’s decision to arrest some MKO members was related to the group’s involvement in the suppression of the Iraqi people during Saddam Hussein’s rule, he only said, “The judicial branch set its regulations and made the decision without the interference of the executive branch. In Iraq, all people are under the jurisdiction of the Judiciary and there is no distinction between them.”

Asked if Iraq is ready to extradite some of the MKO ringleaders, for whom Iran has issued arrest warrants, he replied, “Judicial agreements on the extradition of criminals specify such types of cooperation between countries.”

Camp Ashraf, which houses 3,418 MKO members, is on Iraqi soil and under Iraqi control and all the people residing in the camp are subject to Iraqi law, he explained.

The MKO began a campaign of assassinations and bombings in Iran shortly after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

The group moved to Iraq in the early 1980s and fought Iran from there until the United States invaded in 2003.

Plus News Pakistan

September 17, 2009 0 comment

Iraq

Iraqi government bound to expel MKO

The Iraqi government is legally bound to expel Mojahedin Khalq Organization members from the country, the political advisor to the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq Chairman Seyyed Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, said.

There are two reasons why MKO group cannot stay in Iraq: from the legal point of view these persons are terrorists and the Iraqi government does not have the right to let them stay in Iraq, and the political reason is that the MKO members have perpetrated criminal acts against the Iraqi nation, Mohsen Hakim told the Mehr News Agency on Tuesday.

The MKO began a campaign of assassinations and bombings in Iran shortly after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

The group moved to Iraq in the early 1980s and it fought Iran from there until the United States invaded in 2003 and until recently the MKO members were guarded by U.S. troops in their base of Camp Ashraf, northeast of Baghdad.

Hakim also said that the Iraqi government has changed Camp Ashraf’s name to Camp of New Iraq.

On July 29 Iraqi security forces stormed Camp of New Iraq that housed MKO and took control of it.

Not only is it the legal right of the Iraqi government but it is the government’s duty to exercise sovereignty over its territory, he explained.

Mohsen Hakim said Iraqi forces were in charge of the camp according to a security deal between the U.S. and Iraq but when the Iraqi forces entered the camp to set up checkpoints they were violently attacked by the group.

“The Iraqi government and nation condemn such actions and will never tolerate the presence of these terrorists in their territory,” he added.

Except for 98 MKO members who have been blacklisted by Iran, the Islamic Republic has declared an amnesty for other members and said they can return to Iran just like 500 members of the group did in the recent years, he added.

Commenting on reports that the senior MKO members have said they will not leave the Iraqi soil, he said the MKO members are neither Iraqi citizens nor defectors, and the Iraqi government will never grant them asylum because they are terrorists, Hakim stated.

The executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein used the heavily armed group during his decade-long war with Iran in the 80s, and it also played a role in Saddam”s bloody suppression of Shia and Kurdish uprisings after the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

The MKO was founded in Iran in the 1960s, but its top leadership and members fled the country in the 1980s after carrying out a series of assassinations and bombings inside the country.
The group is especially notorious in Iran because they allied with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

The United States, Canada, Iraq, and Iran have all designated the MKO as a terrorist organization.

The European Union had also designated the MKO as a terrorist organization but inexplicably removed it from the EU terror list in January 2009.

August 15, 2009 0 comment

The MEK Expulsion from Iraq

MKO expulsion will be monitored by a special committee

Zebari: Mojahedin Khalq expulsion from Iraq will be strictly monitored by a special committee

BAGHDAD – Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has stated that Baghdad intends to host talks between Iran and United States over the security situation in Iraq and called for maintaining “Iraq-Iraq-U.S. triangle”.
In an exclusive interview with the Mehr News Agency, Zebari said the Iraqi government, given the current situation in the country, views hosting such talks as a priority.
He pointed out that Iran is “one of Iraq’s most important neighbors” that is seeking “special relations with Baghdad with goodwill” and that Baghdad’s relations with Tehran are of “great significance”.
He added the U.S. influence in Iraq is also “undeniable”.
Iran’s foreign minister has ruled out holding new security talks with the United States over Iraq, saying improved security situation has made such talks unnecessary.
However, Zebari said there are issues that Iran and the United States should “settle between themselves”, and in the run-up to “new Iraq” Baghdad favors cooperation between the three parties by maintaining “Iran-Iraq-U.S. triangle.”
The foreign minister also dismissed reports that Iraq is showing leniency in expelling Mojahedin Khalgh Organization (MKO), saying the Iraqi government has taken its decision on the group and the expulsion will be strictly monitored by a “special committee”.
The MKO has claimed responsibility for carrying out numerous terror attacks against Iranian nationals and officials, and has also been accused of assisting former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the slaughter of thousands of Iraqi civilians in the 1990s.
The MKO established a camp for about 3,500 members in Iraq, which its forces used to launch cross-border attacks into Iran. It fought alongside Saddam Hussein’s forces during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
Many senior Iraqi officials have assured Iran that the MKO members will soon have to leave Iraq.
Zebari also stated that Baghdad understands Tehran’s concerns about the Iranian diplomats detained by U.S forces and expressed hope that Iraq’s negotiations with the U.S. will lead to the release of the diplomats.
The U.S. military detained five Iranian diplomats in the city of Arbil, 310 km (190 miles) north of Baghdad, in January 2007. In November that year, U.S. officials said they would release two of the five diplomats.
http://www.mehrnews.com/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=835267

February 17, 2009 0 comment

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