WASHINGTON — The State Department has decided to keep Iran’s largest opposition group, Mujahedin e-Khalq, on its list of terrorist organizations, according to U.S. officials.
The decision, which could set up a legal battle in the U.S., came before the European Union on Monday removed Mujahedin e-Khalq, or the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, from its own roster of terrorist groups.
Some Middle East analysts say the State Department’s Jan. 7 ruling could assist President Barack Obama in efforts to hold direct negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program.
In Brussels, the Iranian opposition group pursued the same dual strategy of lobbying and legal action within the EU that last year succeeded in removing it from the United Kingdom’s terrorist-group list.
In 2008, Britain’s government lost a long-running legal battle to keep MEK on its list of terrorists after a London court found the government had "no reliable evidence" on which to base a finding that MEK continued to be a terrorist group or intended to commit terrorist acts. MEK waged another court battle in the EU to be removed from the roster of terrorist groups.
The MEK is pursuing similar legal and lobbying campaigns in Washington. An MEK official said the organization plans to appeal the State Department ruling in a U.S. court by Feb. 11.
The new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, reaffirmed Monday that Washington is seeking "direct diplomacy" with Iran as it pushes for an end to Tehran’s nuclear program.
The State Department’s ruling was approved by then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. U.S. officials said Monday they didn’t expect another review of the MEK’s status soon under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Iran’s spokesman at the United Nations, Mir Mohammad Mohammadi, assailed the EU’s removal of MEK from its list of terrorist organizations.
Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said, "What we are doing today is abiding by the decision of the court," according to wire services.
The U.S. has charged the MEK with assassinating senior Iranian officials and bombing overseas Iranian missions.
MEK leaders say the group has renounced violence and is working to promote a democratic Iran. It says the U.S. is using the terrorism designation as a political tool to spur negotiations with Tehran.
"The most important part of a changed policy in the U.S. is to set aside the appeasement of the mullahs and taking the terror label off" the MEK, said Maryam Rajavi, the organization’s leader.
Write to Jay Solomon at jay.solomon@wsj.com
By JAY SOLOMON, Wall Street Journal,JANUARY 26, 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123301682580817775.html
Tehran.
compatriots for having waited so long. He also warned that an Iranian resistance group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), would no longer be able to have a base on Iraqi territory.
(Iranian Ben Ladan) the leader of the People Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) is more dangerous and vicious than Afghan Ben Lad an. The west should be on a high alert not to be decoyed by her new sham guise as an advertisement released via her recently under the title of “the ten- point platform for future Iran” in US daily news paper, the Washington Times in January 14 issue. Mr. President, please pay attention to my reasons as a live witness and her victim during last twenty years who has been under her authority and cage in Ashraf garrison situated in Iraq. Meanwhile, I have been separated from Mojahedin cult a year ago and came to France.
psychologists and researchers in this era are unanimous that the main part of this understanding is to be concerned with personal as well as psychological features of leaders that play a crucial role in all cults. Evidently, psychology is the science that may prepare the ground for acquiring a comprehensive knowledge of various aspects of cult leaders. In this regard, it has been written:
renunciation of terrorism. Without a clear and publicly available renunciation of terrorism by the PMOI, I am entitled to fear that terrorist activity that has been suspended for pragmatic reasons will be resumed in the future”. And he is right since just on 17 June 2003, two years after the claimed date that MKO had conducted no military activity of any kind since August 2001, the group’s members launch a series of most appalling self-suicide operations.