The United Nations published Iran’s protest letter to the secretary general concerning the removal of the terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) from the British government’s terror list.
Iran’s representative to the UN, Mohammad Khazaei, in a letter to Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council, had condemned a decision by London to remove the MKO from its list of terrorist organizations.
In the document, which was circulated in the General Assembly and the Security Council on Thursday, Khazaei asserted that there is clear evidence that the group, which is guilty of many bloody terrorist attacks in Iran for 30 years, was (also) involved in a series of terrorist activities since 2003, IRIB reported.
The MKO claims it relinquished its military hardware to coalition forces in Iraq and denounced violence and terrorism in 2003.
Despite the terrorist nature of the group, the UK’s Court of Appeals and Brown’s government turned a blind eye to the hostile activities of the group, the envoy told the world body.
British lawmakers removed the MKO from the UK’s list of banned terror groups on June 22. Legislators then approved the decision of the Court of Appeals, which had ruled in May that the MKO should no longer be listed as a proscribed group. The MKO has committed acts of aggression against both Iranian and Iraqi nationals and remains banned by the European Union and the United States.
According to Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, the group has killed over 16,000 people in and outside Iran, including one president, a prime minister, four ministers, dozens of parliamentarians, and senior officials.
Mottaki suggested that Britain has become a partner in MKO crime by lifting the ban. “[We will consider] any country that removes the Mujahedin Khalq Organization from its blacklist of terrorist groups as a partner in its terrorist activities,“ he warned.
He urged all countries to condemn terrorism in all forms and without discrimination, adding that in the eyes of Iranians the MKO is the most disreputable group.
Political Verdict
On Thursday a European court, in a politically-motivated move, overturned an EU decision to freeze the assets of the group notorious for its terrorist acts against Iranians and Iraqis.
The MKO is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many countries, and has claimed responsibility for various terror attacks inside Iran.
The Luxembourg-based Court of First Instance, however, delivered a controversial verdict on Thursday that dealt a fresh blow to EU efforts against the group by rejecting the bloc’s decision to freeze MKO assets.
It was the latest in a series of anti-Iran verdicts in support of MKO demands that they be removed from the list.
EU’s second-highest court held that “the EU had failed to give sufficient reasons to keep the Mujahedin Khalq Organization on the list, following a British court decision to remove them from the national list“.
Renewed support for the organization came after the UK Proscribed Organizations Appeal Commission (POAC) ordered the MKO be removed from Britain’s list of terrorist organizations. The group remains on the bloc’s blacklist as a result of a review in July.
The EU decision to keep the group on the list was based on measures implemented in respect of a UN Security Council resolution requiring countries to crack down on terror funding in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks against America.
Soon after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the group launched terrorist operations against Iran. The attacks intensified during the Iraqi-imposed war (1980-88) in