The Iraqi security forces’ move to seize the training camp of the anti-Iran terrorist group, Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), was "legal and accords with the international rules and conventions", an Iraqi politician said Sunday.
"Seizure of Camp Ashraf by the Iraqi army and security forces was a legal move and in accordance with the international rules and conventions," Forat al-Shar, A member of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), told FNA.
"The MKO has conducted illegal acts inside the camp and this is not acceptable to the Iraqi nation," Shar underlined.
Iraqi security forces took control of the training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf – about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad – on Tuesday and detained dozens of the members of the terrorist group.
Earlier on Friday, Political Adviser of the head of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) Mohsen al-Hakim told FNA that UN Security Council’s 1773 and 1816 resolutions as well as other international conventions have underlined the need for the expulsion of the MKO members from Iraq.
Fora’t al-Shar further rejected any extension of the MKO’s stay on the Iraqi, and added, "If MKO members want to stay in Iraq they should not commit acts against the Iraqi nation’s will and the country’s laws."
"If they want to go outside the country or come back to Iran, there are no barriers in this regard," the SIIC official told FNA.
He underlined that the Iraqi nation is unlikely to accept presence of the terrorist group inside the country for a long time, given the crimes committed by them against the Iraqi nation.
The Iraqi government has set a month-long deadline for members of the MKO to leave Iraqi soil.
"Members of the MKO at Camp of New Iraq (Camp Ashraf) have to comply with the one-month time limit to leave Iraq. The organization members should either return to Iran or seek asylum in a third country," Diyala province’s Police Chief Major General Abdulhussein al-Shimari told reporters on Saturday.
The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s. The Iraqi government and parliament has announced that it would not tolerate the group anymore and is seeking to expel the group from the country in the near future.
The anti-Iran terror group has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many international entities and countries.
The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).
Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.
A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.
According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.
The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.
The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.
The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.
The MKO was put on the US terror list in 1997 by the then President, Bill Clinton, but since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group has been strongly backed by the Washington Neocons, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.
