Tehran blasts Paris for allowing meeting and protest by dissident group and thanks Albania after raid on what Iran considers a \u2018terrorist\u2019 organisation.<\/p>\n
Tehran, Iran \u2013 Iran has lashed out against France for allowing a meeting and rally by the blacklisted Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), or People\u2019s Mujahidin Organization, which Tehran says amounts to support for \u201cterrorism\u201d.<\/p>\n
French officials need to \u201cmake up for their past mistakes\u201d in backing the \u201cmurderers of Iranian people\u201d and focus on the country\u2019s \u201cdeep internal crisis\u201d and discriminatory behaviour against its own citizens, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement late on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Kanani was referring to nearly a week of violence and unrest in the European nation since the killing of a teenager by a French police officer.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead, they create the grounds for a rally of terrorists whose drumbeat of ignominy in Albania was recently heard by the whole world,\u201d he said, warning Paris of \u201cpolitical and legal\u201d ramifications if it continues to accommodate the dissident group.<\/p>\n
The MEK\u2019s main camp in Albania, which is home to several thousand members, was raided by security police last month after a court order was issued to investigate unsanctioned political activities that went against a 2014 United States-brokered agreement that allowed its members to reside in the West Balkans nation.<\/p>\n
The group said one of its members died, which Albanian police denied was a result of the raid, and electronics were confiscated. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said the group cannot use the country to fight the establishment in Iran, which the MEK has said it aims to overthrow.<\/p>\n
The organisation, based on Islamic and socialist ideology, used to be on the US and European Union \u201cterrorist\u201d list before being delisted more than a decade ago. Experts have said it operates like a \u201ccult\u201d.<\/p>\n
At the weekend, it held a meeting on the outskirts of Paris as a group of its supporters rallied inside the city.<\/p>\n
Former US Vice President Mike Pence, who is running in the 2024 presidential election, and short-time former United Kingdom Prime Minister Liz Truss addressed the MEK gathering outside Paris.<\/p>\n
Pence said the \u201cIranian regime has never been weaker than it is today\u201d after protests that erupted in September and presented the MEK as an alternative, according to media reports.<\/p>\n
Pence, one of many senior US politicians who have supported the dissident group over the years, also met MEK leader Maryam Rajavi in Albania last year.<\/p>\n