The European Union has agreed to remove the notorious Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) from its list of banned terrorist groups. 
EU foreign ministers approved a decision to remove the outlawed terrorist group from a list that includes Palestinian Hamas and Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers, an unnamed European official was quoted by Reuters as saying.
The group also known as the”Rajavi cult”named after its leader Maryam Rajavi stepped up efforts to be excluded from the list in 2008.
In November Rajavi met with members of the German Parliament in a bid to rally support for the removal of the group from the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations.
The European Court in Luxembourg ruled in December that the EU was wrong to keep the group’s assets frozen.
“What we are doing today is abiding by the resolution of the European court,”EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told reporters just before the ministers finalize the decision in a meeting in Brussels.
The MKO, which has been listed as a terrorist organization in Iran and the United States, has a long and bloody history of targeting Iranian civilians and government officials.
Incidents linked with the group include the June 1981 bombing of the offices of the Islamic Republic Party in which 72 high-ranking Iranian officials including judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mohmmad Beheshti, and tens of Majlis deputies were killed.
In the following August the group assassinated President Mohmmad Ali Rajae’i, Prime Minister Javad Bahonar and National Police Chief Ali Dastgerdi at the Prime Ministry building.
The MKO also assisted Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, in the massacre of thousands of innocent Iraqis and is responsible for several acts of terror in Iran including the 1994 bombing of a revered Shia shrine in Mashhad, eastern Iran.
In 2003, French anti-terrorist police arrested 165 members in Paris, including Maryam Rajavi, for ‘associating with wrongdoers in relation with a terrorist undertaking.’
More recently, around 10 members of the notorious organization were arrested in France and Switzerland on charges of money laundering on September 29, 2008.
Protests in Tehran against EU removing PMOI group from terror list
Hundreds of Iranian students, pupils and families of veterans of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) staged a protest gathering in Tehran Sunday against the decision by European Union foreign ministers to remove the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI) from their list of terrorist organizations.
The crowd first gathered in front of the French embassy in Tehran and shouted slogans against France and the EU for their intention to approve the decision in favour of the PMOI at a meeting Monday in Brussels.
The official news agency IRNA reported that a similar protest gathering was to be held later Sunday in front of the German embassy in Tehran but according to the demonstrators themselves, the next protest gathering would be on Monday in front of the British embassy.
The EU move followed a ruling by the European Court in Luxembourg, which in December said the EU was wrong to keep the PMOI’s assets frozen after it was taken off a British list of terrorist organizations.
Iran regards PMOI as a terror group due to its involvement in the assassinations of several high-ranking Iranian officials, including the president and prime minister in 1980.
After the group was expelled from France in the 1980s, former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein allocated a military base to the PMOI near the border with Iran.
Before the ouster of Saddam, the PMOI frequently infiltrated Iranian territory, leading to clashes with Iranian forces and casualties on both sides.
Middle East
Iraq to Extradite Mojahedin Khalq Terrorists to Iran
European Council to reward them for terrorism against Iran (and Iraq)
… While Iraq plans to extradite heads of Rajavi cult who have "Iranian blood on their hands", European council is to announce today if they are terrorist no more!! read related news and analysis …
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Iraq plans to extradite members of an anti-Iran terrorist group who have "Iranian blood on their hands," Iraq’s national security adviser said Friday during a visit to Tehran.
"Among the members of this group, some have the blood of Iraqi innocents on their hands (and) we will hand them over to Iraqi justice, and some who have Iranian blood on their hands we can hand over to Iran," said Muwafaq al-Rubaie.
He was referring to the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).
"Over 3,000 inhabitants of Camp Ashraf have to leave Iraq and the camp will be part of history within two months," Rubaie reiterated in a joint news conference with Saeed Jalili, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
"The only choices open to members of this group are to return to Iran or to choose another country," Rubaie said.
"We are acting under international humanitarian regulations and international laws. These people will themselves choose where they want go."
"Iran’s security cannot be threatened by any factor inside Iraq. Iran’s security is our own security," the Iraqi official underlined.
His words were translated from Arabic into Farsi by an official Iranian interpreter.
Rubaie said that 914 MKO members had a "passport or residence of a third country" and could leave Iraq for these countries.
"Some 914 of them have dual nationalities and others who want to return to Iran will be allowed to do so," Rubaie said, adding he would discuss the issue with officials from 12 countries to see if they would accept MKO members.
"They will leave Iraq in a non-forcible way," he said. "Terrorist groups have no place in Iraq."
The Iraqi government announced on December 21 it planned to close the Ashraf camp north of Baghdad and close to the Iranian border, where around 3,500 MKO members are held.
On January 1, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he would expel the MKO from the country.
The MKO was created in 1965 with the aim of overturning the regime of the Shah of Iran, but now is seeking the overthrow of Iran’s current government.
It was supported by Iraq’s late dictator Saddam Hussein, and it had carried out deadly raids on Iran from Iraq.
Despite being listed as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, the MKO receives wide support from Washington and London.
The European Court of Justice last month overturned an EU order freezing its funds.
Group members fought alongside Iraqi forces in the 1980-1988 war between Iraq and Iran and then settled in Iraq.
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
Iranian people are well aware of the group’s terrorist nature and the EU action could not distort the reality
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s Ambassador to Iraq Hassan Kazemi Qomi said on Saturday that striking the anti-Iran terrorist group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization, off the list of terrorist organizations by the EU will not change MKO’s terrorist nature.
“Iraqi people and government and also Iranian people are well aware of the group’s terrorist nature and the EU action could not distort the reality,”Kazemi Qomi told FNA.
The European Union is expected to strike the main Iranian armed opposition group in exile off its list of terrorist organizations on Monday, according to EU officials.
The EU decision will come as a so-called”A point”at Monday’s meeting.
“A points”are usually rubber-stamped without discussion as the details have already been ironed out by ambassadors, but nations could still raise objections.
Irrespective of the possible measures to be adopted by the EU, the terrorist nature of the group would not change, he reiterated.
The envoy also called on the European Union to lodge the MKO in one of its member states if it feels sympathy for the group.
Referring to the Iraqi government’s decision to expel MKO members from the country, he stressed,”As the Iraqi government officially stated, misled and repentant members of the group could return to Iran or go to another country.”
Iraqi National Security Adviser Muwafaq Al-Rubaie said here in Tehran on Wednesday that the MKO will be expelled from Iraq in the near future.
Rubaie had also earlier said that his country is determined to implement its decision for closing the MKO headquarters in Diyala province.
“Iraq has made a decision for Ashraf camp and will implement it firmly,”Rubaie told reporters following his arrival at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport on Monday.
“We have put forward two solutions for them, they either return to Iran or find a third country for exile. There is no third way for them,”he added.
The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.
The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a letter last year 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, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets.
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.
Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.
MKO with blood on their hands to be tried in Iraq and in Iran, Camp Ashraf to close within two months
Rubaie: Iraq to Extradite MKO Terrorists
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iraq plans to extradite members of an anti-Iran terrorist group who have “Iranian blood on their hands,” Iraq’s national security adviser said Friday during a visit to Tehran.
“Among the members of this group, some have the blood of Iraqi innocents on their hands (and) we will hand them over to Iraqi justice, and some who have Iranian blood on their hands we can hand over to Iran,” said Muwafaq al-Rubaie.
He was referring to the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).
“Over 3,000 inhabitants of Camp Ashraf have to leave Iraq and the camp will be part of history within two months,” Rubaie reiterated in a joint news conference with Saeed Jalili, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
“The only choices open to members of this group are to return to Iran or to choose another country,” Rubaie said.
“We are acting under international humanitarian regulations and international laws. These people will themselves choose where they want go.”
“Iran’s security cannot be threatened by any factor inside Iraq. Iran’s security is our own security,” the Iraqi official underlined.
His words were translated from Arabic into Farsi by an official Iranian interpreter.
Rubaie said that 914 MKO members had a “passport or residence of a third country” and could leave Iraq for these countries.
“Some 914 of them have dual nationalities and others who want to return to Iran will be allowed to do so,” Rubaie said, adding he would discuss the issue with officials from 12 countries to see if they would accept MKO members.
“They will leave Iraq in a non-forcible way,” he said. “Terrorist groups have no place in Iraq.”
The Iraqi government announced on December 21 it planned to close the Ashraf camp north of Baghdad and close to the Iranian border, where around 3,500 MKO members are held.
On January 1, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he would expel the MKO from the country.
The MKO was created in 1965 with the aim of overturning the regime of the Shah of Iran, but now is seeking the overthrow of Iran’s current government.
It was supported by Iraq’s late dictator Saddam Hussein, and it had carried out deadly raids on Iran from Iraq.
Despite being listed as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, the MKO receives wide support from Washington and London.
The European Court of Justice last month overturned an EU order freezing its funds.
Group members fought alongside Iraqi forces in the 1980-1988 war between Iraq and Iran and then settled in Iraq.
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.
He added that the Iraqi government would deal with the members of the organization in a legal way, saying the MKO members should either return to Iran or select a third country.
The Mujahedin Khalq Organization, which identifies itself as a Marxist-Islamist guerilla army, was founded in Iran in the 1960s but was exiled twenty years later for carrying out numerous acts of terrorism within the country.
The terrorist group is especially notorious for the help it extended to former dictator Saddam Hussein during the war Iraq imposed on Iran (1980-1988).
The group has a 40-year history of involvement in terrorist activities and has masterminded assassinations and bombings inside Iran.
The MKO had regularly provided military training for its members on a base north of Baghdad, known as Camp Ashraf.
Earlier in January, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that Baghdad was determined to close Camp Ashraf and expel the MKO members for the sake of Baghdad-Tehran relations.
“Iraq is determined to put an end to this Organization because it is effecting relations between Iran and Iraq. This organization participated in many operations that harmed Iranian and Iraqi civilians,”he said.”Remaining in Iraq is not an option for them,”al-Maliki added.
Baghdad announced in a statement on December 22 that MKO members at Camp Ashraf must close their training ground and leave the country within a six-month period.
After the finalization of a new agreement between Baghdad and Washington, the Iraqi government took over the country’s national security issues. Under the interim agreement, Camp Ashraf, the MKO headquarters and training site, was put under Iraqi control as of January 1, 2009.
At his Friday press conference, al-Rubaie in response to a question asking the reason for the delay in the camp’s shut down, said that before the interim security pact between Baghdad and Washington, Camp Ashraf had been under US control.
Meanwhile Jalili expressed Iran’s readiness to cooperate with Iraq on security matters through the aim of training and setting up security offices.
France says it has filed an appeal to an EU court to keep the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) on a list of banned terrorist groups.
“Our appeal was filed the day before yesterday,”said Foreign Ministry spokesman Frederic Desagneaux Friday.
On Thursday, an EU diplomat said the bloc had decided to remove the anti-Iran group from the EU list of banned terrorist groups.
The source, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, said EU foreign ministers should approve the consensus before it can be fully implemented.
MKO terrorists, banned by many countries including the US, have claimed responsibility for numerous terror attacks inside Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The group is also responsible for assisting Saddam in the massacre of thousands of Iraqi civilians.
The EU move to remove the MKO from its banned terrorist group list has provoked widespread condemnations inside Iran as well as among the families of the terror attacks victims.
The French spokesman said Friday that Paris was pressing ahead with the appeal to keep the anti-Iran group on the list.
TEHRAN – Iraqi National Security advisor Muwafaq al-Rubaie said on Friday that Baghdad plans to close down the Ashaf military camp where the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) members are held under house arrest.
Iraq is also seeking to extradite the Mojahedin Khalq members who have taken refuge in Iraq since early 1980s, Rubaie told reporters in a joint news conference with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Saeed Jalili in Tehran.
The Mojahedin Khalq launched a campaign of assassinations and bombings in Iran immediately after the Islamic Revolution.
The group was supported by Saddam Hussein’s regime in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war but was disarmed after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Saddam also used the terror group in suppressing Shiite and Kurdish dissidents in southern and northern Iraq.
Rubaie said, “Among the members of this group, some have the blood of Iraqi innocents on their hands and we will hand them over to Iraqi justice, and some who have Iranian blood on their hands we can hand over to Iran.”
“The only choices open to members of this group are to return to Iran or to choose another country,” he stated.
The Iraqi envoy said “Some of the MKO members have expressed interest to return to Iran and we are making the arrangements for this.”
“We are acting under international humanitarian regulations and international laws. These people will themselves choose where they want to go.”
Rubaie said that 914 MKO members have a passport or residence of a third country and could leave Iraq for these countries.
He said on his return to Iraq he would discuss with the ambassadors of the United States and a dozen European countries to see if they would accept MKO members.
The top Iraqi security official stated that hundreds of MKO members have already returned to their families with the help of the Red Cross organization.
The Iraqi government announced on December 21 it planned to close the Ashraf camp north of Baghdad and close to the Iranian border.
On January 1, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki went further and said he would expel the MKO from the country.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Rubaie said Iraq is ready to take control of its domestic affairs even sooner than the 16-months deadline set by U.S. President Barak Obama.
Iraq and the United States have signed a security deal that calls for the U.S. troops to leave Iraq by the end of 2011. However, Obama, during his campaign for presidency vowed to withdraw combat forces from Iraq within 16 months from taking office.
Iraqi people and security forces are more than ever ready to take care of the country’s affairs and currently 95 percent of domestic issues are controlled by Iraqis, Rubaie said.
Jalili also stated that Iraq’s repeated announcements that it is ready to take control of the situation inside the county leaves no excuse for the continuation of occupation by foreign forces.
Turning to diplomatic relations with Iran, Rubaie said Iraq has signed a highly important agreement with the Islamic Republic after receiving “positive responses” from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“We are leaving Tehran by achieving a very important deal because we raised important issues in our negotiations and received positive, strong and documented responses,” he explained.
Rubaie, however, did not elaborate on the content of the agreement
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=187569
EU lifts ban on MKO terrorists(A day after the arrest of their suicide bomber in Iraq)
The European Union has reportedly decided to remove the anti-Iran Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) from its terror blacklist.
“The deal has been done. [MKO] will be delisted,”an EU diplomat said on conditions of anonymity on Thursday.
He, however, asserted that the consensus must win final approval from EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels on Monday in order to become fully operational.
The Mujahedin Khalq Organization, which identifies itself as a Marxist-Islamist guerilla army, was founded in Iran in the 1960s but was exiled some twenty years later for carrying out numerous acts of terrorism inside the country.
The terrorist group is especially notorious for the help it extended to former dictator Saddam Hussein during the war Iraq imposed on Iran (1980-1988).
The group masterminded a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, one of which was the 1981 bombing of the offices of the Islamic Republic Party, in which more than 72 Iranian officials were killed, including then Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti.
A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report condemns the MKO for running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations. According to report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.
In recent months, high-ranking MKO members have been lobbying governments around the world to acknowledge the dissidents as those of a legitimate opposition group.
The group has a 40-year history of involvement in terrorist activities. It assassinated several Americans in Iran in the 1970s and criticized the founder of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for releasing the American diplomats in 1981, arguing instead that the hostages of the embassy takeover should have been executed.
The United States and Canada have refused to drop the MKO from their lists of terrorist organizations.
Iraq plans to close down Camp Ashraf, which is the seat of Iranian militant
group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MeK), within two months, Press TV reported Jan. 23, citing Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie. Al-Rubaie added that Iraq would allow MeK members to return to Iran or go to another country.
Stratfor.com