Head of the Muslim Council of Britain Kamal al-Halbawi reiterated on Saturday that Washington’s so-called support for justice and peace is just a means to materialize the US interests.
"The concept of justice and peace from the United States’ point of view is safeguarding the country’s hegemony and leadership," Halbawi said, addressing the international conference of ‘International Coalition against Terrorism for Fair Peace’ here in Tehran today.
"The US has opted for inhumane goals which do not seek fair justice and it endeavors to meet its interests in the campaign against terrorism," he added.
Iran along with many other Muslim countries have criticized the western countries’ selective approach towards terrorism, specially after the September 11 attacks in the US.
In similar remarks earlier, Iran’s Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Eshaq Ale-Habib had also lambasted the world powers’ double-standard approach to terrorism, stressing that such policies have caused a further spread of terrorism in the world
Addressing the annual meeting of the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee, Ale-Habib said that certain western powers continue to take advantage of terrorist activities and groups to accomplish their political objectives and increase pressure on the other countries.
"Unfortunately, these countries do not doubt about negotiating and cooperating with terrorists whenever beneficial to them," he added.
Ale-Habib pointed to the interactions and friendship between certain western countries and the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) as an evident instance in this regard, and said such intimacy between the two sides has been developed while the MKO has launched numerous cruel terrorist attacks against the innocent Iranian citizens and has collaborated with the former Baath regime in suppressing the freedom-seeking uprisings of the Iraqi people.
In a surprising action late last month, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called on Iraq to ignore MKO’s terrorist activities.
Observers say that the EU has changed approach towards the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) as a pressure lever against Iran.
Certain western countries like France have sheltered some ranking members of the MKO who have had a role in the assassination of a large number of Iranian citizens and officials.
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).
Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, whose main stronghold is in Iraq’s Northern Diyala province, 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.