While US issued no direct rebuttal onthe comments An Iranian envoy also addressed the council, accusing the United States of supporting the Iraq-based People’s Mujahideen (MKO) guerrilla group. The MKO is banned as a terrorist group in Iran, the United States and the European Union. “Its elements and members continue to enjoy support and receive safe haven in the US and some European countries, including some member states of the EU,”the envoy said. The MKO’s political wing, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), is banned in the United States as a terrorist organisation but remains legal in the EU. The MKO advocates overthrowing the Islamic leadership of Iran. Washington issued no direct rebuttal of the comments. But Richard Grenell, a spokesman for the US mission to the United Nations, responded by referring to the Security Council’s March 3 adoption of a third round of UN sanctions against Iran for refusing to halt its enrichment work. “Our response to the Iranians was the … Security Council resolution in which the international community said again Iran was in violation of international (nuclear) demands,”he said. Washington also accuses Iran of supporting Middle Eastern militant organisations including Hezbollah and Hamas. The NCRI first revealed the existence of Iran’s clandestine uranium enrichment program in August 2002. The United States and other Western countries fear it is part of a plan to get the capability to produce atomic weapons but Tehran says is at the heart of a peaceful civilian nuclear energy program. By Louis Charbonneau at the UN Security Council meeting | March 20, 2008