Several lawmakers welcomed the Iraqi efforts to expel the remaining members of the anti-Iran terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization from its soil in the near future.
Seyyed Qasem Jasemi, a principlist lawmaker, in an interview with ICANA on Saturday, praised the Iraqi government’s strong determination to expel MKO terrorists, which reflects the view of the Iraqi nation.
"This is an international terror organization that should have no place in any part of the world," the parliamentarian said.
Iran’s Ambassador in Baghdad Hassan Danaeifar said on Thursday the Iraqi government, in cooperation with the United Nations, has so far expelled 65% of MKO terrorists and the rest will be deported in 45 days.
"The Iraqi government has long sought to expel MKO members, but this process has been delayed due to pressure from the US and some of its allies," Danaeifar said.
Jasemi, who is a member of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said other countries will not allow the terrorist group to do what it could do in an Iraq ruled by former dictator Saddam Hussein, because they know such activities are detrimental to their interests.
"With the expulsion of all MKO members from Iraq, the group will near its end," he said.
Desperate and Hopeless
Kamal Dehqani Firouzabadi, another member of the parliamentary commission, told ICANA on the same day that the expulsion of the group from Iran’s neighboring country is a defeat for its western and regional supporters.
Dehqani said the "desperate and hopeless" members of the group are absolutely hated by the Iranian people and pose no threat to the country.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran has so much power in the region that its enemies cannot use the group [to hurt it]," he said.
MKO has martyred over 12,000 Iranian civilians and government officials over the past decades, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In the 1980s, the group, called Monafeqin (hypocrites) by Iranians, fled to Iraq, where it received support from Saddam and set up Camp Ashraf near the Iranian border, and sided with the ruthless Iraqi ruler in Iraq’s war against Iran (1980–88).
There is also a deep-seated resentment toward the group in Iraq, as it assisted Saddam in his brutal suppression of Shias and Kurds in southern and northern Iraq in the early 1990s.
In December 2011, the UN and Baghdad agreed to relocate some 3,000 MKO members from Camp Ashraf to Camp Hurriyet (Camp Liberty), a previous US military base.
The last group of MKO terrorists was evicted by the Iraqi government in September 2013 and relocated to Camp Hurriyet to await their potential transfer to third countries.
Financial Tribune