Iraq has decided to shut down the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) Ashraf Camp as soon as possible, expel the MKO members from Iraq and close their file forever, said a senior Iraqi official.
Political advisor of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), Muhsin Al-Hakim exclusively told IRNA that Baghdad considered the MKO as a terrorist group.
Most of its members are based in Ashraf Camp north of Baghdad.
According to Al-Hakim, continued presence of the terrorist group in Iraq would be against Paragraph 33 of the Resolution 687 of the United Nations Security Council.
It would also be against the Iraqi Constitution, decisions made by the country’s presidency council and approvals of the Iraqi parliament, added the advisor.
The Paragraph 33 of the UN Security Council resolution, approved in April 3, 1991, required the government of Iraq to expel all terrorist groups that are present in the country.
The MKO members have two options of either returning home or leaving for another country but they cannot remain in Iraq any longer, Al-Hakim said stressing that the terrorist group was legally in an unclear situation as its members are neither considered refugees nor prisoners of war.
According to reports by human rights advocates, former members of MKO who returned home were living in good conditions, Al-Hakim added.
The advisor stressed that the grouplet has been barred from conducting all political, social and media activities on Iraqi territory.
He added that an Iraqi battalion was currently in charge of providing external security of Ashraf Camp while its internal affairs are undertaken by the foreign nationals department of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.
MKO is known as a terrorist group for conducting violent operations in Iran.
It is labeled a terrorist organisation by the United States, the European Union and many other countries.
Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organisation 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.