Reported by Al-Sharq , Egyptian diplomatic sources said Egypt has ignored a request by the delegation of the People’s Mojahedin Organization (MKO) that visited recently to demand the support of Egypt for the MKO in the face of growing Iranian influence in Iraq. The source noted that in regard to the strained relations between Cairo and Tehran, which asserts that it can tolerate no more tension, the existence of disparities and problems in the relations in the recent period does not mean interference of Egypt in Iran’s internal affairs.
The sources said that Cairo did not take the request of the group seriously, although it had assented to its visit and to listen to their point of view about the regional issues including the Iranian-Egyptian relations.
Earlier, reported by Al-Masry-Al-Youm , a delegation of MKO had a visit to Cairo last week to discuss their cause with some Egyptian bodies and human rights organizations. It notes that some sources linked the Iranian opponents’ arrival in Cairo to the recently tense relations between Egypt and Iran on the backdrop of Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip.
MKO looked like it was on the ropes when Iraqi Prime Minister announced he wanted the group’s military base, Camp Ashraf, near the Iranian border closed within two months. Being a globally designated terrorist group, MKO hopes that the EU’s Jan. 26 decision will unlock untold millions of dollars frozen in European banks allowing it to freely move to any country it wills. But even those countries having a tense relation with Iranian regime are cautious not to aggravate it by letting the opponent terrorists settled in their country regardless of their responsibility towards their nation to protect them against the threat of terrorism.
Mujahedin Khalq Terror group
many years, the roughly 3,500 members of the Iranian dissident group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) living quietly in Iraq drew little attention. But now the relatively obscure group is at the center of an increasingly contentious argument among leaders in Baghdad, Tehran and Washington, where decisions the new White House makes about the rebels will probably set the tone for U.S. relations with Iran in the near term.
The simmering issue of the MEK’s fate flashed into the open earlier this month when Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki unexpectedly declared that the group would no longer be allowed to remain in Iraq. Shortly after that, Maliki’s national security adviser, Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, said the MEK’s camp roughly 40 miles north of Baghdad would be disbanded within two months, declaring during an appearance in Tehran that Iraq would not play host to threats toward its neighbor.
The issue grew more complicated on Jan. 26, when the European Union removed the MEK from its list of terrorist organizations, a roster that includes organizations such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The E.U. move, which came after a long lobbying campaign by the MEK’s supporters in Europe, sparked an outcry in Tehran. About 300 people were gathered around noon on Wednesday in front of the British Embassy in Tehran to protest the E.U. decision. Some in the crowd threw stones at the embassy, while others held up shoes on sticks in a show of deep disrespect in the Middle East.
"What people side with the enemy and kill their own people in a war?" said demonstrator Sina Zamanian, 17, referring to the MEK’s alliance with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war, which led them to settle in Iraq. "They are the worst kind of opportunistic terrorists and should be forever marked as such."
Nevertheless, some in Baghdad are calling for the group to be allowed to remain in Iraq, or at least to not be turned over to Iran, for political reasons. "We have to deal with this issue very delicately," says Ayad Jamal al-Deen, an Iraqi parliamentarian aligned with Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. "I’m not here to defend this organization. I have no interest in them. But I am looking out for the Iraqi national interest." Al-Deen and other Iraqi political figures see the group essentially as a bargaining chip with Iran, one of the few Iraq holds against its powerful neighbor. They argue that simply shuttering the MEK camp as Iran demands squanders what precious little leverage Iraq has against Iran. Al-Deen adds, "In my opinion, Iraq has only this card, MEK, to pressure Iran."
At the moment, however, the MEK’s ability to remain in Iraq depends on the will of the Americans. The Bush White House continued to use the military to protect the MEK at Camp Ashraf despite its current status as a terrorist organization on the U.S. list and periodic complaints by the emerging Iraqi government and Tehran, which says the group is still involved in subversive activity inside Iran. Outwardly, U.S. officials have said disbanding the camp would be in contravention of international humanitarian law because the group’s members are likely to face persecution in Iran or Iraq. But many Iraqis and Iranians suspect that the U.S. keeps the camp open for intelligence purposes, since the MEK’s spy network played a key role in uncovering Iran’s secret uranium-enrichment program in 2002.
Maliki appears intent on pressing the issue anew with the Obama Administration, which will have to decide soon whether to keep offering U.S. protection to the group or to yield to Iraqi demands to close Camp Ashraf. If the White House allows the Iraqi government to close the camp, the Iranian leadership is likely to see the move as a sign that the new Administration is eager to ease tensions between Washington and Tehran. A continuation of the status quo, however, could chill Obama’s early outreach efforts.
At Camp Ashraf, MEK members simply wait for word on what may happen to them as discussions continue in Baghdad, Tehran and Washington. Shahriar Kia, a spokesman for the group, says a closure of the camp would be a disaster for those living in what amounts to a protective quarantine for roughly the past seven years. "Closing down Camp Ashraf and the displacement of its residents, who are protected by the Geneva Conventions, against their will is a war crime," says Kia. "This will cause a humanitarian catastrophe."
— With reporting by Tariq Anmar in Baghdad
By Mark Kukis / Baghdad
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1875917,00.html
A former member of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation (MKO), who abandoned the outlawed group in protest at its terrorist operations, said the European Union should take responsibility of supporting the MKO in its terrorist acts.
Masoud Khodabandeh said deproscribing the MKO by the EU is a politically-motivated move which leads to support for the terrorism spread by the MKO.
He told the Islamic republic news agency that Europeans should take the responsibility of future measures by MKO terrorists who are going to be allowed to enter Europian countries.
"You [the Europeans] cannot defend terrorists [by deproscribing the MKO] and at the same time claim you are countering terrorism," he said.
Khodabandeh, who is now the spokesman of a non-governmental organisation dedicated to help members abandoning the MKO, said European leaders have adopted a double-standard policy towards the issue of terrorism.
"The MKO case proves that the European Union behaves in a discriminatory manner," he said, adding that Europeans are well-aware that MKO members have conducted many terrorist operations in the past three decades.
He said the MKO bears "no significance" in international developments as "it has now expired".
Khodabandeh added that MKO members, if released from the Ashraf Camp in Iraq and admitted to European countries, would spread insecurity and terrorism across Europe.
He said the terrorist nature of the MKO has never changed as its members are wearing uniforms and taking military drills in the Ashraf Camp.
He added that Mojahedin-e Khalq Organisation has not only slaughtered many Iranians but also "has been directly engaged in killing Iraqi Shiites and Kurds and suppressing even its own members".
Out of around 3,000 MKO members, he suggested, some 2,000 are in critical health conditions "and are willing to leave the Ashraf Camp."
Khodabandeh said if Europeans do really want to extend their help to these people trapped by the MKO, they should welcome them to Europe–a move he said his organisation will favour.
EU turning blind eye on MKO terrorism, says Iranian Embassy
London – Iran’s Embassy in Norway announced on Thursday that the European Union has turned a blind eye on terrorist activities of Mojahedin Khalq Organisation by deproscribing it from its terror list. In a statement, the embassy said the MKO has conducted many assassination and terror operations inside Iran and Iraq, claiming thousands of innocent lives.
“The EU’s move to take MKO out of its terror list is in contradiction with its decision several years ago to announce the grouplet a terrorist organisation,” the statement reads.
The embassy also said there is enough evidence that the MKO is a terrorist organisation and its leaders collaborated with Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran and suppression of his own nation.
“Based on verifiable documents and footages from Saddam’s intelligence unit, MKO leaders had met him and other Iraqi officials and briefed them on their involvement in the massacre of Iraqi people, especially the Kurds.”
The Iranian Embassy in Norway further expressed regret that the EU has isolated itself from the global community in its campaign against terrorism.
“The EU instead extended a hand for friendship and cooperation with MKO terrorists,” it said, adding that the EU’s move is in contradiction with the international laws and rights, as well as its commitments towards international anti-terrorism treaties.
zawya.com
The MKO, which seeks to destabilize the government in Tehran, is currently headed by Maryam Rajavi — who considers herself the president-elect of a supposed Iranian government-in-exile.
France has offered to take in members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) who are being forced to leave Iraq, sources claim.
The French government has volunteered to transport MKO members onboard its passenger aircraft to France as soon as possible, Iraqi sources told Tabnak on condition of anonymity.
The Iraqi officials also told the news agency that Israel has offered to recruit MKO members for its military.
The revelation comes after the European Union removed the exiled anti-Iran group from its list of terror organizations on Monday.
The MKO is notorious for having staged many attacks against Iranian and Iraqi civilians.
The 1981 murder of Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti along with 71 other senior Iranian officials is also attributed to the group.
Under the leadership of Massoud Rajavi, the MKO helped the Baath regime of Saddam Hussain in the suppression of the Iraqi Kurds in ‘Operation Morvarid’. Thousands of Iraqi civilians were brutally massacred in the operation.
After the 2003 regime change in Iraq and the 2009 interim security agreement between Baghdad and Washington, the responsibility for the security of Camp Ashraf — an MKO military training ground –, was transferred to Iraqi forces.
The Iraqi government has recently given MKO members a tight deadline to leave the camp, situated in Diyala province, and the country altogether.
Western countries claim that the lives of MKO members will be threatened if they return to Iran. Tehran, however, has promised to welcome the return of any member who has not taken part in any serious anti-Iran activity and is ready to leave the group.
"During the past few years, various MKO members have requested permission to return. Of course, if serious cases have not been filed against them, they can return to the country by handing themselves over," Iranian security official Alaeddin Boroujerdi said on Thursday.
The French proposal to take in the MKO members comes as a surprise, because Paris consistently opposed the motion to remove the group from the European list of terror organizations. France is, already, home to a large number of MKO activities.
MKO is known for the cult-like tactics it uses within the group and for the torture and murder of its defectors.
"There are many [MKO members] who have tried to flee the camp. They have contacted Iran and introduced themselves. But in the end the complicated system has entrapped them," said Boroujerdi.
Numerous articles and letters posted on the Internet by family members of MKO recruits confirm reports of the horrific abuse that the group inflicts on its own members and the alluring recruitment methods it uses.
The most shocking of such stories include accounts given by former British MKO member Ann Singleton and Mustafa Mohammadi — the father of an Iranian-Canadian girl who was drawn into the group during an MKO recruitment campaign in Canada.
Mohammadi gives an account of his desperate efforts to contact his daughter, who disappeared several years ago — a result of what the MKO called a ‘two-month tour’ of Camp Ashraf as a teenager.
He also explains how the group forces the families of its recruits to take part in MKO demonstrations in Western countries by threatening to kill their relatives.
Reports indicate that the banned terrorist group, which lacks a foothold in Iran, recruits ill-informed teens from the immigrant population of Western states, not allowing them to leave afterwards.
Unlike Europe, the US has not removed the group from its terror list.
An Iranian lawmaker today urged France to relinquish any political pressure to remove name of the Iraq based – Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO) out of the terrorist groups’ list and keep up its independent position. Iran considers the group to be terrorist.
Head of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Ala’eddin Boroujerdi said in a meeting with French parliamentary delegation that the decision to bring MKO out of the terrorist groups’ list runs counter to anti-terrorist claims of European states and will have negative impact on Iranian nation’s public opinion.
Boroujerdi briefed the delegation on chronology of terrorist activities of the MKO as its leaders have confessed to that and also assassination of hundreds of innocent women, children and people in Iran.
He said, “French government is expected to maintain its independent position in that connection.”
Head of MKO 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 judgment 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 judgment,” 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 MKO that the UK government have “no plans to meet its representatives.”
An Iraqi politician said the recent decision of the European Union to remove the terrorist Mojahedeen Khalq Organization from the list of terrorist groups benefits only European countries and as such did not concern Iraq.
In an exclusive interview with the Iranian news agency IRNA, Spokesman for Iraqi National Congress Mohammad Hassan al-Mousawi said both the Iraqi nation and government strictly considered the group as terrorists and were opposed their presence on their soil.
He pointed out that the Iraqi Constitution has banned engagement of any group in terrorist activities against one of nation’s neighbors.
He stressed that Iraq was strongly in favor of expelling the group from its soil.
Pointing out that his party, led by Ahmad Chalabi, was working on a plan to set up a strong regional union to include Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria, he said the presence of such terrorist groups as the MKO and the PKK in Iraq prevented materialization of the plan.
arabicnews.com
The family members of victims of MKO terrorist attacks have cautioned the EU against becoming the organization’s “partner in crime”.
“As victims of MKO terrorism, we advise the European Union not to turn into the group’s collaborator in their atrocities against the Iranian nation,” reads a statement from the family members.
The victims had gathered in front of the British embassy in Tehran in protest at a recent decision to remove the group known as the ‘Rajavi cult’ from a list of banned terrorist groups in the EU.
“When Masoud Rajavi and his group launched their terrorist attacks in Iran in 1981, European counties not only did not condemn their atrocities but also gave them refuge in their countries,” adds the statement.
The Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), 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.
“The Rajavi cult has conducted its campaign of terror in Iran with the support of the European governments and from their safe havens inside the European capitals,” the families said.
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.
During the revolution in Iran, the group criticized Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for releasing the American diplomats, arguing that they should have been executed instead.
The United States and Canada have refused to drop the MKO from their lists of terrorist organizations.
The group has also been engaged in cult-like activities such as psychological coercion techniques and physical abuse.
The group has also resorted to ‘forced sterilization’ as a strategy to prevent members from leaving the group.
Iran has filed a complaint to the UN on the recent EU decision to remove the Mujahedin Khalq Organization from its list of terror groups.
"The European Union must realize that a political approach to terrorism, which threatens the lives and security of people around the world, is totally unacceptable for the global public opinion," Iran’s permanent envoy to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaei, wrote in a Wednesday letter to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
"The EU’s politically motivated decision will not change the terrorist nature of the group. It will not ‘turn the page’ of history on the cult’s terrorist activities and massacre of innocent civilians, nor will it cleanse the terrorist group of its criminal past," he added.
Khazaei added that the removal of the group from the European list of terror organizations had caused great pain for over 14 thousand people who had lost their family members in MKO terror attacks.
The Iranian envoy called on the EU to revise its decision by sending a collection of evidence it has to European courts explaining the terrorist nature of the MKO, and resolving the technical objections that had led to the court ruling.
On Monday EU ministers removed the exiled anti-Iran group from their list of terror organizations, following a European court ruling in favor of the group, which has accepted responsibility for many deadly attacks against Iranian and Iraqi civilians and cooperated actively with the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
In one of their deadliest attacks, the MKO carried out a 1981 bombing that killed Iranian Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mohmmad Beheshti and 71 other senior officials.
Among their most recent terror activities is the 1999 assassination of the chief-of-staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, Ali Sayad Shirazi, just outside his house in the early hours of April 10th, as he was preparing to leave for work.
MKO is notorious for the cult like tactics it uses against its members, and the murder and torture of its defectors.
Numerous articles and letters posted on the internet by family members of MKO recruits confirm reports of the horrific abuse that the group inflicts on its own members and the luring recruitment methods it uses.
http://www.presstv.com/Detail.aspx?id=84026§ionid=351020101
A State Department Spokesman says the US administration will not change the terrorist status of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO).
“We’ve already done a review and it was determined that there would not be a revocation of that status for the Mujahedin-e Khalq, so nothing has changed from our standpoint,” Robert Wood said at a briefing on Monday, when asked if Washington would follow the action taken by the European Union.
The EU removed the MKO from its list of terrorist organizations on Monday. The move outraged the Iranian Foreign Ministry, which in a statement, called the decision incomprehensible.
Wood added that there had not been ‘any change at this point’ in the status of the MKO, suggesting that the new administration was unlikely to alter its stance on the outlawed group.
The US announced on Jan. 12 that labeling the MKO as a terrorist group was an appropriate act and that the group had to remain on the blacklist.
The MKO, blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many international entities and countries including the US, is responsible for numerous acts of violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.
The group also attempted an unsuccessful invasion of Iran in the last days of the Iraq-Iran war in 1988.The MKO was involved in the massacre of Iraqis under former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
TEHRAN – Germany’s Federal Intelligence Agency (BND) has released a report on the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), calling it a “fake parliament”.
The NCRI is a part of the terrorist Mojehedin Khalq Organization (MKO) and is headed by Maryam Rajavi.
The BND also stated that the military wing of the MKO is “an army of insurgents”.
Not only are the MKO leadership’s claims to adherence to democratic values disingenuous, but they also follow the tenets of Stalinism and use brainwashing techniques, the report noted.
The report also stated that the MKO finances itself through activities such as economic fraud, the production of false documents, and using children to get donations from charity organizations.
The European Union removed the MKO from its blacklist of terrorist groups on Monday
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=188028