U.S. special adviser on Camp New Iraq (which was formerly known as Camp Ashraf) has said that
the members of the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) will not stay in Camp Liberty for a long time.
Daniel Fried said that Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near Baghdad International Airport, is the Iraqi government’s property and the MKO members are not authorized to reside there for a long-term period, the Fars News Agency reported on Monday.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh says that Baghdad has not extended the 
end-of-year deadline to expel the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) from Iraq, the Fars News Agency reported on Wednesday.
The deadline has not been extended but the way to expel the MKO members from Iraq has changed, Dabbaq stated.
Up to now, no country has agreed to give refuge to the members of the group, he said, adding that ,however, it takes a long time to move four thousand people and their belongings.
According to an agreement between the UN and Iraq, the MKO members’ expulsion from Iraqi soil will take place in two phases, Dabbaq said.
First, the residents would be relocated to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near the Baghdad International Airport, and then they will leave the country, Dabbaq explained.
He went on to say that as the Iraqi government has earlier announced, the MKO members will leave Camp New Iraq, which was formerly known as Camp Ashraf, by the end of 2011.
The MKO started its activities as a terrorist group based in Iraq in the early 1980s. In addition to the assassination of hundreds of Iranian officials and citizens, the group cooperated with Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime in its repression of the Iraqi people.
The MKO had fought as a mechanized division in alliance with Saddam Hussein during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. But it was disarmed and left stranded after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 that toppled the dictator.
The U.S. government characterized the MKO as a cult and designated it a terrorist group in 1997, holding it responsible for the assassinations of three U.S. Army officers and three civilian contractors before the Islamic Revolution (in 1979). With funding from the Iranian diaspora, the MKO has mounted a major campaign in the U.S. and Europe and enlisted many top national security figures from mostly Republican administrations as well as a number of prominent Democratic politicians to get its terrorist designation lifted.
Thousands of Iraqi people held a demonstration in Tahrir square in central Baghdad on Friday calling for the expulsion of the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) from their country.
The MKO, The terrorist group, was granted asylum in Iraq in the 1980s under Saddam Hussein’s regime and set up home at Camp of New Iraq (which was formerly known as Camp Ashraf) in Diyala province. But after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, they became an irritant to Iraq’s government.
According to AP, the demonstrators were urging the government to abide by an end-of-year deadline to expel the group from Iraq and close their camp here.
Shouting some slogans, the protesters condemned the MKO and warned the Iraqi government about the terrorist group’s plans to kill the Iraqi people and to plague the country by internal divisions.
Issuing a statement, the protesters also called on the government to prevent the European Union from interfering in the issue of expulsion of the MKO.
They also urged the government to bring to trial the MKO criminals who have the Iraqi people’s blood on their hand.
Decision to close MKO camp ‘irreversible’
In an interview with AFP on Thursday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that Baghdad’s decision to close Camp of New Iraq by year-end is ‘irreversible.’
“The decision we made is irreversible, especially because this organization refused the visit of a UN representative to Camp Ashraf,” Maliki said.
“They’ve rejected the UN plan, which means this is a criminal gang and we cannot permit a criminal gang to remain here,” he added.
The Iraqi government has reiterated that the camp, which is a threat to its relations with neighboring Iran, will be closed by December 31.
But last week the United Nations appealed for an extension to the end-of-year deadline to allow more time for a solution to be negotiated with the camp’s residents who are refusing to move unless they are given UN protection.
ICRC has not requested extension of MKO expulsion deadline
Speaking to the Fars News Agency, the representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Iran, Pierre Ryter, said that the Committee has never negotiated with Iraqi officials to persuade them into extending the deadline for the expulsion of the MKO members from Iraq.
The special spokesperson for the Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) has announced that the members of the terrorist group will leave Iraq and give up their ‘right’ to claim asylum in the country, the Fars News Agency reported on Wednesday.
According to Habilian Association website, the spokesperson said, “However, our situation will not be conducive to the departure of the country until the end of the current year.”
“We want the Iraqi government to take into consideration the plans of the United Nations and the European Union concerning the transfer of the MKO members from Camp New Iraq (which was formerly known as Camp Ashraf),” he added.
About 3500 MKO members are based at Camp New Iraq.
The Leaders of the terrorist group had repeatedly claimed their right to stay in Iraq and said the MKO members would not leave the country under any circumstances.
Iraq’s Army Chief Babakir Zebari recently said that the Iraqi government is determined to expel the MKO by 2012.
The chairman of an Iraqi committee in charge of supporting the victims of terrorist actions carried out by the members of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) has said that the group will be forced to exit from Iraq if they refuse to leave the country by 2012, ISNA reported on Saturday.
Recently, a number of demonstrations have been held outside the Camp of New Iraq calling for MKO members to be expelled from Iraq.
MP Mohammad Javad Abtahi says the Baghdad government is pressed by Washington to allow the U.S. to establish military bases in Iraq, he stated.
This is while Iraq’s major concern is Camp Ashraf which houses MKO terrorists, Abtahi told the Mehr News Agency.
He added if the U.S. really wants to deal with insecurity in Iraq, why it does not cooperate with the Iraqi government to expel the MKO terrorists.
Abtahi also refuted claims by U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta that Iran sends military equipment to Iraqi insurgents.
The MP said the United States has nothing to prove its claims so it resorts to anything to justify its baseless claims.
He said Iraq’s security is highly important to Iran, adding, “Iran has always expressed concern over the security of its borders and then how is it possible (for it) to intensify insecurity in the region?”
The Iranian ambassador to Baghdad has said that the Iraqi officials are serious in dealing with the terrorist group PJAK (the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan), emphasizing they regard Iran’s action against terrorists as justified.
Iraq regards this group as a terrorist one and believes that Iran has the right to take action against the group, Ambassador Hassan Danaiifar told reporters on Sunday.
Asked about Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), he said that the Iraqi government is determined to expel the members of the terrorist group from the country by the end of this year.
He also said that most of the members of this group that have escaped from Camp Ashraf are trying to return to Iran.
“After escape, they usually seek refuge in Iraq, and most of them demand to be granted permission to enter Iran as they have requested in their interviews with the International Committee of the Red Cross,” he said referring to those members of the group that have not been involved in any criminal action.
“We will also facilitate the process of their return to Iran,” he added.
He went on to say that a remarkable number of the group members have been returned to Iran and a special committee has been set up for this purpose in Iran’s consulate in Iraq .
An Iraqi lawmaker has announced that the Iraqi parliament plans to establish a committee tasked with pursuing the expulsion of the members of the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization based in Camp Ashraf. 
Hassan Al-Sunaid, the Security and Defense Committee chairman, made the announcement in a recent interview with Kurdistan Regional Government’s website.
The Security and Defense Committee has reached an agreement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maleki to form the special committee, Al-Sunaid stated.
On April 8, following orders of the government and in line with the new Iraqi Constitution, the Iraqi army tried to dismantle the terrorist group’s residential area, called Camp Ashraf, but the MKO members residing in the camp clashed with the Iraqi soldiers.
The Iraqi government has also set a deadline for Camp Ashraf residents to leave the country.
On April 13, the Iranian ambassador to Baghdad announced that Camp Ashraf residents can return to Iran under certain conditions.
“These persons can travel to Iran or any other country if they are willing to do so and if no criminal case has been filed against them in Iran or Iraq. They will also be given passports,” Ambassador Hassan Danaiifar stated.
Backed by the U.S. and some European countries, the MKO started its activities as a terrorist group based in Iraq in the early 1980s. In addition to the assassination of hundreds of Iranian officials and citizens, the group cooperated with Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime in its repression of the Iraqi people.
Iranian Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi has not confirmed news reports claiming that Masoud Rajavi, the ringleader of the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization, has been killed.
“We have not yet come to the conclusion that he has been killed,” Moslehi told reporters in Tehran on Saturday.
Commenting on the situation of the MKO members based at Camp Ashraf, Moslehi stated that the United States and its allies are making attempts to save the MKO, but the members of this terrorist organization must be aware that they have no place in Iraq.
The Iraqi government has decided to expel all MKO members within six months.
According to Habilian Association website, a number of the Iraqi families, who have lost their beloved ones in attacks carried out by the MKO, plan to file a lawsuit against this terrorist organization at the Department of Justice Activities in Iraq.
Habilian Association is a Human Rights NGO comprising of a group of families of the victims of the terrorist attacks.
According to the report, a number of the families of the victims of the March 1991 massacre seek the prosecution of the perpetrators of the massacres and want the leaders of the organization to be brought to justice.
The Iraqi government has decided to expel all members of the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization, according to a number of reports. 
The decision was made because MKO members are still committing hostile acts in Iraq and the Iraqi people can no longer tolerate them, the Mehr News Agency reported on Friday.
In addition, an Iraqi news agency reported that during a recent telephone conversation with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the Iraqi government had decided to expel the terrorist group within six months.
Zebari also emphasized the need to close Camp Ashraf, where the MKO members in Iraq have been confined since the fall of the Baathist regime in 2003, and asked European nations and other countries to accept the MKO members after they are deported.
The Iraqi government does not allow foreigners who violate its laws to stay in the country, he added.
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, Nahrainnet reported.
Meanwhile, the police of Iraq’s Diyala province has released documents showing that MKO members have been holding secret meetings where they discuss plots to undermine the security of the province.
The secret gatherings have negatively impacted the security situation of the province, according to the documents.
The documents also revealed that Al-Qaeda members have held many meetings with MKO members and provided financial support to the MKO.
In a recent interview with the Al Alam network, Iraqi MP Ali al-Shalah said Iraq will never allow any part of its territory, including Camp Ashraf, to be used for launching attacks against Iran.
