IRNA

MKO still a terrorist group, says UK’s Jack Straw

The British government still considers that the MKO is a terrorist group despite being recently removed from the UK’s proscribed organizations, according to Justice Secretary Jack Straw. The British governemnt still considers that the MKO is a terrorist group

During a meeting with visiting Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for European Affairs, Straw also said that the UK strongly supports keeping the MKO on the EU’s terrorist list.

The British government has argued that it had no alternative but to accept a recent court decision to remove the group, which has assassinated thousands of Iranians, from its list of proscribed organizations under the Terrorism Act 2000.

But at their meeting on Tuesday night, Safari described the decision as both "political and unlawful" and said it was a "black stain on UK-Iran relations."

The deputy foreign minister, who started a three-day visit to London on Monday, also expressed concern about the long-drawn out saga of the US trying to extradite former Iranian Ambassador to Jordan, Nosratollah Tajik, from the UK while at Durham University.

He was particularly distressed about Tajik’s physical and psychological condition caused by two years of duress, while he was not only innocent but a victim of entrapment in a secret US sting operation.

But Safari expressed hope that the case would be successfully resolved as soon as possible and clear the "black mark" in the UK’s relations with Iran to ensure it does not happen again.

September 14, 2008 0 comment

Terrorist groups and the MEK

MKO had direct cooperation with al-Qaeda

Hakim: MKO had direct cooperation with al-Qaeda in past five years Baghdad

A member of Iraqi Supreme Islamic Assembly said on Wednesday that the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization had direct cooperation with al-Qaeda group in the past five years.

Seyed Ammar Hakim told IRNA that the MKO members, in addition to direct cooperation with the al-Qaeda, had been accomplice in the Baathist regime crimes and had also cooperation with terrorists in the past five years.

He rejected any claims on relation between expulsion of the MKO members from Iraq and Iran-US agreement, stressing that expulsion of the MKO members from Iraq is the resolve of the Iraqi government and nation.

By providing the US officials with incorrect information, the MKO members caused arrest of several outstanding opposition personalities who were active in anti-Saddam movement, a number of whom are still in the US prisons, Hakim added. MKO had direct cooperation with Ai-Qaida

He said that the MKO members were also active to launch protest gatherings against the newly established Iraqi government trying to weaken the democratically elected government in the past few years.

September 6, 2008 0 comment

Iraqi Authorities' stance on the MEK

MKO members must leave Iraq within set deadline

Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Abdulkarim Khalaf said on Wednesday that members of the terrorist Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO) must leave Iraqi soil within the specified six-month deadline.

"Regarding the principle of good neighborliness and non-intervention in neighbors’ affairs, the Iraqi government will not allow regional terrorist groups, including MKO and the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), to use Iraqi territory for operations against others," said Khalaf in reaction to views of certain political groups and wings about the six-month deadline set by the Iraqi government for the MKO to leave Iraqi soil.

Khalaf said that over the past two days, half of Ashraf garrison, the main bastion of the MKO in Iraq, has been delivered to the Iraqi army by American troops.

Americans, however, are still having the responsibility to control the garrison and it is said that it will remain under their supervision until Iraq takes over responsibility for Diyala province.

September 6, 2008 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Terror victim families protest at UK deproscription of MKO

Representatives of the families of thousands of Iranian victims brutally assassinated by the MKO terrorist group have visited Britain to protest about the government’s decision to remove it from its proscribed list.

The relatives, led by Seyed Mohammad Javad Hasheminejad, presented reams The relatives, led by Hasheminejad, presented reams of documentary evidence of the MKO's hideous crimes to officials at the Home Office of documentary evidence of the MKO’s hideous crimes to officials at the Home Office and Foreign Office as well as the Islamic Human Rights Commission during their visit.

Hasheminejad, whose father was assassinated by the MKO, said that it was "surprising" that while US and European courts were reviewing the group’s terrorist label, it was still claiming responsibility for killing more innocent people.

The British government proceeded to remove the MKO from its proscribed list under the Terrorism Act 2000 in June, despite ministers publicly proclaiming that they disagreed with the decision.

"The MeK (MKO) was responsible for a series of vile acts of terrorism over a long period. They have never publicly renounced violence and only gave up their arms in the face of the overwhelming might of US forces in Iraq," Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.

The visit to London was organized by the Habilian Association for terror victims’ families, which has recently compiled a comprehensive list of all the victims of more than 1,000 bombings, hand grenade and mortar attacks and assignations carried out in Iran by the MKO.

The association told IRNA that it was planning to legally challenge a London court ruling that led to the MKO being deproscribe under terms legislated by the government but which has the right to amend.

"Iranian people would consider the UK Court of Appeal’s decree to remove the MKO from the list of banned organizations as an unfriendly act," it said."

"No doubt, the escalated tension between Iran and the West plays a role to keep the MKO on the scene as an instrumental use against Iran," Habilian said, questioning whether the removal was really in the UK’s national interests.

September 6, 2008 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Mojahedin Khalq to be put in UK terrorist list once again

Lawmaker: Mojahedin Khalq (MKO, MEK, Rajavi cult) to be put in UK terrorist list once again

An Iranian lawmaker said here Friday that the terrorist Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO) will be put in the UK terrorist list once again.

Member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Javad Karimi said a number of the UK parliamentarians had in a meeting with several members of his Commission said the UK parliament and government will follow the European Union in putting the MKO in their terrorist list once again soon.

The `Habilian Center’, which groups bereaved families of those martyred in terrorist incidents, quoted Karimi as saying that current term of Majlis has become more diplomatically active than its predecessors and intends to make maximum use its potential.

He hoped that London will soon rectify its past mistake so that suitable bilateral relations are built.

As for Iran’s parliamentary diplomacy to secure the MKO expulsion from Iraq, Karimi said on Iraqi people’s request, the issue of MKO expulsion from Iraq has become an axis of the Iran-Iraq diplomacy over the past years and this is the point on which Iraqi resident, prime minister and lawmakers have repeatedly laid emphasis.

He said Americans try to prevent materialization of the goal but judicially speaking, they are not in a much influential position and not much time remains until MKO expulsion from Iraq.

After the MKO members’ expulsion from Iraq, Iran will follow up the issue of the grouplet leaders’ hand over to Iranian judicial authorities and if necessary, they should be tried at the Hague as war criminals.

On the MKO activities in Jordan, he said since they know they will be expelled from Iraq, the MKO try to go to Jordan.

Despite a few number of Jordanian policy makers’ support for the MKO, the Jordanian government and nation are not willing to keep a number of notorious terrorists, he concluded.

August 11, 2008 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Families of MKO members gathering

Families of MKO members gather in front of British Embassy Tehran

Families of members of the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) gathered in front of the British Embassy in Tehran on Monday to protest London’s recent decision about the notorious organization. families of MKO members gathering

London has recently removed the terrorist organization from the Britain’s terror list.

The protestors were families of those MKO members who have been kept (mostly unwillingly) in the terrorist cult’s camp some 60 km north of the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad.

The center, called the Ashraf Camp, is a place where the MKO members are brainwashed to get prepared to participate in terrorist operations against civilians targets.

At the end of the gathering, the families read a protest letter addressed to the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown condemning the UK’s decision.

The letter considered as the gathering’s final statement, voiced the families serious concerns about the fate of their relatives and loved ones.

Stressing that London has made the decision for "political" reasons, they urged British premier to "make sure" that the terrorist group "would not use our children in terrorist activities again." "What has happened under Saddam Hussein’s regime must not be repeated again. We require assurances from the British government that our children would not enter terrorist activities one more time." The protesting families stressed that they would find the British government responsible, once their children entered any more terrorist operations.

They also called on Brown to "safeguard meetings between us and our relatives in the Ashraf Camp".

Established in 1960s, the MKO is at the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze and has been designated by the US government as a foreign terrorist organization.

July 28, IRNA

July 29, 2008 0 comment

Iran

Accomplices in MKO crimes

Iran: States involved in Mojahedin Khalq (Rajavi cult, MKO, MEK,…) removal from terrorists’ list are accomplices in its crimes

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said here Friday that countries involved in removing the terrorist Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO) from the terrorists’ list are accomplices in the terrorist crimes committed by the grouplet.

“Any country moving officially in line with removal of the MKO from the terrorists’ list will from the view point of Iran and Iranians be an accomplice in the terrorist acts taken by the grouplet,”Mottaki told IRNA prior to leaving New York.

He said,”Surely, such a move is condemned and we reserve the right to follow necessary procedures and lodge complaint against the country supporting terrorism.”

He went on to say,”The cowardly move of clearing the MKO’s name from the terrorists’ list started from Britain and definitely such a cowardly effort will have no impact on our people’s attitude and the nature and position of the terrorist group.”

He noted that the MKO is the most notorious groups in the eyes of Iranian people due to its crimes during the Sacred Defense era (1980-88) and assassination of personalities and officials as well as thousands of innocent citizens.

“The MKO will continue to be regarded as a terrorist group by survivors of the victims of its terrorist measures and the Iranian nation.”

He said terrorism, in any form, is condemned and equal and indiscriminate approach should be shown against it.

“Terrorism can not be classified into good and bad today. Terrorism is terrorism and is so condemned. Equal and indiscriminate approach should be shown against all of them (all forms of terrorism),”said Mottaki.

“While trying to put in the terrorist groups’ list a media or a liberation group which fights for freedom of its land, these (the westerners) want to bring out from the list the groups which have a long record of terrorist acts,”he said.

He concluded,”Today, the world public opinion does not at all accept such a contradictory and dubious approach being based on the double-speak and political standards and we condemn such an act.”1420

July 7, 2008 0 comment

John Jenkins:”We too hate the MKO Terrorist group”

UK gov’t should revise antagonist stands to expand ties with Tehran – Diplomat anaging Director of IRI Foreign Ministry’s Western Europe Affairs Office emphasized here Wednesday any kind of expansion of ties with London depends on UK government’s revising of its antagonist stands regarding Iran. According to Foreign Ministry Press Department, Ali Dowlatyar made the comment in a meeting with the Head of the Middle East and North Africa Bureau of the British Foreign Office, John Jenkins. Dowlatyar added,”Intensifying of the MKO’s recent antagonist moves, pursuing measures aimed at imposing more limitations against our country, efforts aimed at closing the branches of Bank Melli Iran (BMI) throughout Europe, Mr. Tajik’s issue, immediate extradition of Mr. Badavinejad, and other issues of such nature cannot be ignored by Tehran.” He denounced a recent verdict issued by a British court, resorting the reasoning that the MKO terrorist grouplet has conducted no antagonist move during the course of the past few years, as a political verdict, arguing,”The great Iranian nation considers as unacceptable the double standards observed by Britain in its campaign against terrorism, regrading the recent verdict as a strongly antagonist act.” Touching on Tajik’s issue, too, the Foreign Ministry’s Managing Director of West Europe Affairs said,”It was obvious from the beginning that Mr. Tajik’s case is a conspiracy led by the US intelligence agents, and that the matter was politically motivated.”Dowlatyar added,”There are numerous questions related to Mr. Tajik’s case that have still remained unanswered and keeping in mind his physical conditions, and particularly his heart’s status, in addition to the nuisances and problems with which him and his family have been entangled during the past couple of months, this inhumane trend should end as soon as possible.” Jenkins, too, said,”As the British Foreign Secretary and other high ranking UK officials have stated, the British government considers the moves made by the terrorist group (MKO), as well as the moves made by the National Resistance Council, as shameful.”The Managing Director of the British Foreign Office’s Middle East and North African Affairs Bureau emphasized,”We, too, hate the MKO terrorist group, and despite the existence of lots of differences of opinion, that is something natural in relations among countries, we favor improvement and expansion of ties with Tehran.” Tehran, July 03, 2008

July 7, 2008 0 comment

Iran

London responsible for MKO terrorist acts

A parliamentarian said on Sunday that the British government is responsible for any terrorist operation by the MKO members in the future.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, talking to reporters, denounced London’s move to remove the name of terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization from its terrorist blacklist.

“The British government which supports the terrorist MKO should accept consequences of its acts,”he reiterated.

“The British government justifies its act (removing the MKO from its terrorist list) by saying that members of the grouplet have not carried out any terrorist operation in the past few years while the MKO terrorist leaders still lead the group,”Boroujerdi added.

He said he was surprised by freedom of action of MKO members MKO in the European countries.

British lawmakers decided to lift ban on the MKO on Monday, following a court decision last month that ruled the government had to remove it from a terrorist blacklist.

The order to remove the MKO, which was originally banned in 2001, from Britain’s list of proscribed groups will come into effect soon, after it was approved without a vote.

The MKO, formed in the 1960s, is on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze, and has been designated by the US government as a foreign terrorist organization.

July 1, 2008 0 comment

The MEK Expulsion from Iraq

Iraqi government to expel MKO

Iraqi Ambassador to Tehran Abu Heidar al-Sheikh said on Monday that the Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is to pay an official two-day visit to Tehran next week.

Speaking to reporters at Iraq’s embassy, he said the upcoming visit would leave huge impacts on expansion of political and economic relations between the two countries and would also help accelerate such a trend.

New political system in Iraq has opened new chapters for expansion of mutual relations between the two countries; he said adding that Iraq seeks to broaden friendly ties with its neighbors and with the Islamic Republic of Iran in particular.

The Iraqi defense minister and minister of electricity and water resources will accompany Maliki during his two-day visit, he said adding that the Iraqi delegation is to discuss implementation of agreements sighed between the two countries.

The Iraqi delegation is also to sign some new memoranda of understanding (MoUs) during their visit to Tehran, he said.

Exchange of visits between the two sides’ high ranking officials will help bolster ties between Iran and Iraq, said the Iraqi ambassador.

The Iraqi premier is to confer with the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on security pact between Iraq and the US, he pointed out.

On presence of MKO in Iraq, he said the Iraqi government would under no circumstances let any individuals or organizations take action against its neighboring countries and the Iraqi government is to expel them.

No country in the world would host MKO, he underlined.

June 1, 2008 0 comment

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