Iran’s Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi has criticized countries that are trying to remove Mujahidin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) from the list of terrorist groups, calling them "terrorist states."
“The reason these countries are doing this is because they are terrorist themselves,” Moslehi said on the sidelines of the Cabinet meeting on Sunday.
On Thursday, France dropped charges against 24 members of the terrorist MKO who were arrested in 2003.
In June 2003, French anti-terrorist police rounded up 165 MKO members in and around Paris for associating with criminal elements in connection with committing terrorist acts.
The decision to drop terror charges against MKO members is the latest move by a European country to act in favor of the terrorist group since the EU removed the organization from its terrorist list in 2009.
In 2010, the European Parliament issued a declaration and urged the US to remove the MKO from Washington’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
Moslehi added that the Islamic Republic would welcome the return of MKO members, and would treat them according to the country’s law.
Earlier in May, Iran’s Ambassador to Iraq Hassan Danaeifar said that Tehran has pardoned all the residents of the Camp Ashraf except for less than 100 individuals who have criminal records.
The Iraq-based group is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community and is responsible for numerous acts of terror and violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.
The MKO is also known to have cooperated with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.
