Iraqi government has asserted any decision against its policy to expel the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) has no impact on Baghdad decision, Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad told ISNA.
The moves and activates in Iraq show the government is serious about its decision for expulsion of the MKO, Hassan Kazemi Qomi said on Tuesday.
Since the Iraqi government believes the nature and activities of MKO are based on terrorism, it has informed the members that they must leave the country and it pursues the case, he added.
Iraq’s National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie on Tuesday held a meeting with ambassadors of 9 European countries, the US, Canada, Australia and Iran to ask them to accept the MKO members in their countries.
"We want to close all the files with our neighbors, and our eastern neighbor Iran sees this as a threat to their national security," Reuters cited al-Rubaie.
Qomi said in this regard that in the meeting with presence of Iraqi Human Rights Minister, Wijdan Michael, Baghdad officials insisted on their policy towards the MKO and called for other countries to aid Iraq implement this policy.
Iraq’s government asserted not only the MKO but also all terrorists must leave Iraq’s territory and Tehran is primed to aid Baghdad fulfill the task, he added.
European foreign ministers on Monday dropped the MKO from the EU terrorist blacklist but said the group may be put in the list in the future.
Head of MKO terrorist group Maryam Rajavi is expected to remain excluded from the UK despite the EU dropping the previously outlawed group from its proscribed list.
British Foreign Office said that although it does not discuss individual cases of exclusion, the government continues to believe that the MKO or MeK, as it prefers to call it, was ‘responsible for vile acts of terrorism over a long period’.
"If an individual has made public statements in the past supporting or condoning terrorism, and has not publicly and unambiguously apologized and refuted such statements, then this would constitute grounds for not admitting an individual into the UK," Foreign Office spokesman Barry Marston said.
"We are not satisfied that the MeK has done enough to distance itself from its past. There is no dispute about its previous terrorist activity: it claimed responsibility for a large number of violent attacks inside Iran for a number of years," Marston told IRNA.
Rajavi was subject to an exclusion order back in October 1997, which banned her entry to the UK on the grounds that the organization contained a large faction of terrorists. The Foreign Office at the time said her presence was ‘not conducive to the public good’.
The British government insists that the deproscription of the MKO was ‘a judicial and not a political decision’ both in the EU as it was earlier in the UK and that it opposed its removal.
"We have made it clear that we were disappointed by the verdict of the Proscribed Organizations Appeal Commission and of the Court of Appeal, but we had to comply with their decisions," Marston said about the British decision last July.
"Equally, given the clear judgement of the Court of First Instance on December 4, 2008, annulling the MeK’s listing in the EU, the EU had no choice but to observe and respect the court’s judgement," he added.
Asked whether the UK government still considered the MKO as a terrorist organization, he said that there were still ‘serious reservations about the MeK’s assertion that it represents a democratic opposition in exile’.
"We see no evidence of popular support for the MeK in Iran, because of its responsibility for terrorist attacks which resulted in the deaths of many Iranian citizens, and because it fought alongside Iraqi forces against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war," Marston said.
Regarding the potential that the controversial decision could have an adverse effect on Iran’s relations with the UK and the EU as a whole, he stressed that it should ‘not be seen as a political decision’.
"We would not hesitate to re-proscribe the MeK if circumstances changed and evidence emerged that it was concerned in terrorism," the spokesman said.
He also quoted Home Office Minister Tony McNulty insisting last June during the debate on the deproscription of the MKO that the UK government have ‘no plans to meet its representatives’.
Baghdad is determined over expulsion of the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) from Iraq despite the EU decision to remove the group from its blacklist, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC)
political adviser told ISNA on Monday.
The European Union decision over removal of the MKO from its terrorist blacklist has no impact on Iraqi government’s determination to expel the group, Mohsen Hakim said.
The MKO is a terrorist organization under the UN and Security Council resolutions before and after the 11 September attacks and according to Iraq’s constitutions support for terrorism is prohibited and illegal, he added.
The members of MKO are neither war captives nor refugees thus have no legal position in Iraq, he explained.
According to Hakim 500 of MKO members have returned to Iran and 914 have European countries’ residence permit and Iraq is negotiating to get them out of the country.
Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie in his recent visit to Tehran emphasized Camp Ashraf, the MKO residential place, will be closed forever in two months and the members will leave to leave the country.
The EU countries have reached a preliminary agreement to remove (MKO) off an EU list of banned terrorist groups, their foreign ministers, however, meet on January 26 for a final approval on the issue.
The name of the guerilla has remained in the US and Canada blacklists.
The MKO founded in 1960s has carried out assassinations and terrorist attacks against Iranian high-ranking officials including Judiciary Chief Mohammad Hossein Beheshti, President Mohammad Ali Rajayee and Prime Minister Mohammad Javad Bahonar and also civilians. The terrorist efforts have killed 3000 in Iran in 1980s. It has also betrayed the nation by helping Saddam against Iran during 1980-88 Iraq’s imposed war.
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.
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.
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.
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.