Head of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi
Senior Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi has condemned the EU and six world powers for supporting the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).
“Such blatant support for terrorist organizations and groups is in contradiction with the West’s humanitarian claims,” the head of the Parliament (Majlis) National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said on Sunday.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has always been ready to clarify its stances, and has always kept the door open for negotiations with the P5+1 (the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany).”
Boroujerdi added that even though the door for negotiations with the P5+1 is open, but the EU should clarify its stance regarding terrorist groups, where after Iran will decide about the resumption of talks.
The European Parliament, which removed the MKO from its blacklist in 2009, issued a declaration in 2010 and urged the US to take the group off its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
The MKO, which has been on the US terror list since 1997, filed a petition against the blacklisting in 2008.
The administration of former US president George W. Bush rejected the request in its final days in 2009, after examining material submitted by the group and US intelligence agencies, including classified information.
In July, a US federal appeals court ordered the US State Department to reconsider its decision.
The State Department said it would study the decision, but added that the US government continues to view the group as a terrorist organization.
In February, a group of former high-ranking American politicians and officials renewed calls to remove the MKO from the State Department’s official list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
At a conference in Washington on February 20 organized by a group called Executive Action, several American officials urged President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to remove the MKO from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
They argued that the MKO is critical to any chance of overthrowing the Islamic establishment of Iran.
Former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton, who chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee and served as vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission, Ambassador Dell Dailey, who was once the State Department’s Coordinator for Counterterrorism; General Michael Hayden, a former director of the CIA; and former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace; Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Walter were among the officials who attended the conference.
The Iraq-based group is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community and is responsible for numerous acts of violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.
The MKO is also known to have cooperated with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.