Members of Iraq’s legislative body voiced their support for Baghdad’s recent decision on the expulsion of the member of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) from Iraq’s soil, and urged the Nouri Al-Maliki’s government to immediately put the decision into effect.
The decision was first adopted by the Baghdad government last year but the country’s state officials reiterated this week that they are resolved to accelerate implementation of the decision after the terrorist group started an armed conflict with the Iraqi security forces responsible for guarding the MKO’s main training camp in Iraq, the Camp of New Iraq (formerly known as Camp Ashraf).
Zeinab al-Taei, a member of Ahrar Party at the Iraqi parliament, told the Iraqi Kurdistan New Agency, AKnews, that the bloc supports expulsion of MKO members, and expressed the hope that the decision would be put into effect soon in future.
Meantime, Abbas al-Bayati, a member of Iraq’s National Alliance, said that the decision will be implemented by the end of 2011.
Safiyeh Soheili, an independent lawmaker, reminded the terrorist group’s assistance with the former Ba’ath regime’s confrontation against the Iraqi people, and told AKnews that the MKO’s case in Iraq should be closed.
Earlier this month, Iraq announced that members of the terrorist group must leave by the end of the current year (2011).
Iraqi Government Spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said that the cabinet is determined to shut down Camp Ashraf located North of the capital, Baghdad, and disband the terrorist group.
"The council of ministers has committed to implement an earlier decision about disbanding the terrorist group by the end of this year at the latest, and the necessity of getting it out of Iraq," the official noted.
The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s.
Iraqi security forces took control of the training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf – about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad – in 2009 and detained dozens of the members of the terrorist group.
The Iraqi authority also changed the name of the military center from Camp Ashraf to the Camp of New Iraq.
The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.
Before an overture by the EU, the MKO was on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visited Brussels and despite the ban enjoyed full freedom in Europe.
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).
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.