Iran: Overt EU support for Iraqi based Mojahedin Khalq terrorists once again proved our point that "US, EU use terrorism, misuse human rights"
Western Tendency for Terrorism Proved by EU Support for MKO
The European parliament’s statement in support of the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) corroborated Iran’s disclosures of the West-sponsored terrorism in the region, Iran’s High Council of Human Rights said in a statement on Sunday.
In his last week disclosures of the western countries’ key role in post-election frenzies in Tehran and their support for terrorist attacks on the Islamic Republic, Secretary-General of Iran’s High Council of Human Rights Mohammad Javad Larijani stated that the US and its major European allies have proved as the main supporters of armed opposition against the Islamic Republic, including the MKO and the notorious Jundollah terrorist group, the statement reminded.
Larijani in his remarks had said that the EU and the US are misusing the human rights to attain their goals in Iran and the region, mentioning that while western statesmen object to the human rights conditions in Iran, their parliamentarians in Britain, France and Germany have regular meetings with the most devilish and notorious terrorists in the region, who have killed hundreds and thousands of innocent people in their numerous terrorist operations, specially against Iran.
"How can the EU leaders label themselves as human rights supporters while they do not spare any effort to extend arms, financial and political backup and support to the most notorious anti-Iranian terrorists," Larijani had asked, according to the statement.
The statement further reminded that a few days after Larijani’s last week remarks, the European Parliament issued a declaration on Thursday, urging the removal of the MKO and Jundollah from Washington’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The European Union took the MKO off its blacklist in 2009.
Also efforts in the House of Representatives to press the Obama Administration to remove the group from the United States list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations have accelerated in the past week.
However, the anti-Iran terrorist group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), remained in the US list of terrorist groups and organizations despite intense efforts by Zionist lobbies and a number of the Congressmen to delist the group.
The US State Department announced in its recent annual report on terrorism that no change has been made in the MKO’s status.
The MKO insists that the US should delist it as a terrorist organization, a demand which has been rejected so far by Washington.
An appeals court in the US had earlier ruled that the State Department should review the terror status of the MKO.
The MKO had filed a petition against the US blacklisting in 2008.
The Bush administration, however, rejected the request in its final days in 2009, after examining the material submitted by the group and the US intelligence community, including classified information.
In July 2010, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals in Washington said in a 22-page decision that the US government failed to give the group a fair chance to rebut unclassified information that claimed the group supported terrorist activities.
The government was obligated under a 1996 antiterrorism law and 2004 revisions to give the group the chance to rebut unclassified information, the appeals court said, adding that the group was "permitted access to the unclassified portion of the record only after the decision was final."
In a statement, the State Department said it would study the decision, but added that the US government continues to view the group as a terrorist organization.
The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community.
Before an overture by the EU, the MKO was on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visited Brussels and despite the ban enjoyed full freedom in Europe.
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, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets.
Leaders of the group have been fighting to shed its terrorist tag after a series of bloody anti-Western attacks in the 1970s, and nearly 30 years of violent struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In recent months, high-ranking MKO members have been lobbying governments around the world in the hope of acknowledgement as a legitimate opposition group.
The UK initiative, however, prompted the European Union to establish relations with the exiled organization now based in Paris. The European Court of First Instance threw its weight behind the MKO in December and annulled its previous decision to freeze its funds.
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.
Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.
The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s.
The European Parliament’s recent statement also called on the US to delist another notorious armed opposition group, the anti-Iran Jundollah, from its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
The Jundollah group has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks in Iran. The group has carried out mass murder, armed robbery, kidnapping, acts of sabotage and bombings. They have targeted civilians and government officials as well as all ranks of Iran’s military.
In one of the worst cases, the group killed 22 citizens and abducted 7 more in Tasouki region on a road linking the Southeastern city of Zahedan to another provincial town.
In 2007, Jundollah kidnapped 30 people in the Southeastern Sistan and Balouchestan province. They were freed during a Pakistani police operation after abductors took them to the country.
Jundollah claimed responsibility the same year for an attack on an Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) bus in which 11 IRGC personnel were killed.
In its latest crime in October, the Pakistan-based terrorist Jundollah group, closely affiliated with the notorious al-Qaeda organization, claimed responsibility for a deadly attack in the Sistan and Balouchestan province which killed 42 people among them a group of senior military commanders, including Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Force Brigadier General Nourali Shoushtari.