An anti-Iranian organization is seeking to base its new headquarters in Egypt, a move that could further sour relations between Tehran and Cairo. The People’s Mujahidin of Iran, also known as the Mujahidin Khalq Organization (MKO), is an Iranian opposition movement outlawed in Iran. The movement has had camps in Iraq since the early 1980s and sided with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war. Its leaders fled to France during the 1980s.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has stated that Baghdad intends to host talks between Iran and United States over the security situation in Iraq and called for maintaining “Iraq-Iraq-U.S. triangle”. ….. The foreign minister also dismissed reports that Iraq is showing leniency in expelling Mojahedin Khalgh Organization (MKO/PMOI/MEK), saying the Iraqi government has taken its decision on the group and the expulsion will be strictly monitored by a “special committee”…
..There are reports that 1,031 MKO members have so far decided to leave Iraq either by acquiring citizenship or by obtaining passport and so they will leave the country or those countries that have granted them citizenship will have to take them out of the Iraqi soil, he pointed out.. Those Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) leaders who masterminded terror operations inside Iran must be extradited to the country to stand trial, Iranian Ambassador to Baghdad Hassan Kazemi Qomi has said
A front man for the MKO has protested against Iraq’s decision to bring to trial the leaders of the terrorist group… In a Press TV program aired on Tuesday, Iraq’s National security Advisor, Muwaffaq al-Rubaie said the members of the MKO who had committed crimes against Iraqi civilians had to stand trial in Iraqi courts…The Iraqi government has vowed to expel the members of the group to their country Iran or send them to a third country, maintaining ‘staying in Iraq is not an option for them’.
Blacklisted a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) whose activities are banned in the US, MKO has initiated a propaganda blitz there along within a number of European countries to draw attention for the protection of Camp Ashraf, its main cult bastion located in Iraq that houses majority of its captivated members… MKO believed that the alliance with Iraq could play a decisive role to alter the course of the war that was threatening the invader himself. The Iraqi soil offered MKO the opportunity to form the Liberation Army so it could stage cross-border attacks at the right time. Closeness to Iranian borders could facilitate it for the supposed sympathizers to join the group more easily and, on the other hand, the operational teams could easily penetrate to launch terrorist operations.
Iraq says it is standing by a decision to shut down Camp Ashraf and end the terrorist Mujehedin Khalq Organization’s presence on Iraqi soil. “MKO members who are residing in Camp Ashraf (inside Iraq) should either leave Iraq for Iran or a third country because they won’t be granted permission to stay in Iraq,”Iraq’s National security Advisor, Mowaffak Al-Rubaie said in a televised interview with Al-Alam TV network on Sunday.
… The committee in charge of ending the presence of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization [MKO] in Iraq has held a periodic meeting under National Security Adviser Dr Muwaffaq al-Rubay’i and in the presence of the minister of human rights and the US ambassador to Iraq. Al-Rubay’i stressed the need to expel this organization from Iraq …
al-Rubai went on to say that Iraqi courts have issued arrest warrants for 14 MKO members…“The MKO[PMOI/MEK] is a terrorist group and a cancerous tumor in Iraq; The crimes and sins the group has committed are evident and well-documented. Several thousand Iraqi citizens have fallen victims of the terrorist organization and we have provable evidence, that we will submit them to Iraqi courts,” said al-Rubai in an exclusive interview with IRNA.
the movement is in decline already .Since the late nineties the internal dissent in Camp Ashraf is increasing and with the fall of the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein, the MKO will be deprived of their basic logistics..we believe that the leadership of MKO[PMOI/MEK] should answer the killing of civilian Kurds…we are sure that the meetings in Europe with several supporters and / or members of MKO led you to find them available and courteous.
There is now a new attitude in Europe towards the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization. God willing, the European states will reach a solution according to which they will accept them there. This group’s stay in Iraq is no longer accepted by the people and government. I can tell you that the leadership of this group committed big mistakes in the past. It cooperated with the dictatorial regime in the fight against the Kurds and the Shi’is in the central and southern regions.