Iraq says that Camp Ashraf of the Mujahedin Khalq terrorist Organization will be closed forever within a two-month framework. Iraq would not let the MKO or other groups carry out acts of terror against neighboring countries, Iraq’s National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said in a Friday joint press conference with Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili in Tehran.
The European Union has reportedly decided to remove the anti-Iran Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/PMOI) from its terror blacklist. (A day after the arrest of their suicide bomber in Iraq)..the consensus must win final approval from EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels on Monday in order to become fully operational. ..The group has a 40-year history of involvement in terrorist activities. It assassinated several Americans in Iran in the 1970s and criticized the founder of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for releasing the American diplomats in 1981, arguing instead that the hostages of the embassy takeover should have been executed.
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..an EU diplomat said the bloc had decided to remove the anti-Iran group from the EU list of banned terrorist groups.
The would-be suicide bomber is one of the residents of Camp Ashraf, the MKO training center and headquarters in Iraq. The main objectives of the attack were targeting Iraqi security forces who took over the camp’s security on January 1, 2009 and dissuading the members of the terrorist group from leaving the compound or surrendering to Iraqi forces. The Iraqi government has been seeking the expulsion or relocation of MKO, as it believes the group to be responsible for attempting to destabilize the country by carrying out terror attacks.
… The US announcement comes amid Iraqi government efforts to expel members of the terrorist group. Baghdad assumed control of the security of Camp Ashraf, the main MKO/PMOI/MEK military base in Iraq’s Diyala province, on January 1, 2009 …The Mujahedin Khalq Organization is blacklisted by many countries, including EU member states and the United States as a terrorist organization. It relocated to Camp Ashraf from Iran after the Islamic Revolution.
Al-Maliki: There is one thing that will not be tolerated and that is for them (Mojahedin Khalq, Rajavi cult) to stay in Iraq..They do not have the necessary requirements to be granted refugee status. Furthermore, Iraq is determined to put an end to this [Mujahedin Khalq] Organization because it is effecting relations between Iran and Iraq. This organization participated in many operations that harmed Iranian and Iraqi civilians under the Saddam regime.
Following the Iraqi government’s statement, a White House spokesman, Benjamin Chang, said that the US received guarantees from Baghdad that MKO/PMOI members residing in Iraq would not be”forcibly transferred”to a country where they may face charges. An Iraqi official, however, disputed the claims, indicating that no security guarantees had been granted to MKO members.
The Iraqi government has refuted recent US claims that it has granted immunity to members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/PMOI)… Baghdad announced in a statement on Dec. 22 that MKO members at Camp Ashraf must close their training ground and leave the country no later than six months. Iraq has also drawn up a list of MKO members who must stand trial for the operations they carried out in the war-torn country.
A top Iraqi judge has reportedly called on The Hague to probe into the terrorist activities of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/PMOI/MEK). ..”The war on terror has a long way to go and to that end governments and nations need to be united,”said Jom’eh Abdul Davoud..Under the leadership of Massoud Rajavi, the MKO helped the Baath regime of Saddam in the suppression of the Iraqi Kurds in ‘Operation Morvarid’.