Iran

Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Interpol has requested information about a alleged suspect wanted over US allegations of an assassination plot, but suggested the name was too common to pinpoint the individual.

Salehi said there are 150 names similar to the one requested by Interpol for the alleged plot to kill the Saudi envoy to Washington.

"There are 150 Gholam Shakuris (in Iran). Interpol sent us a question about this name, and our investigation showed a certain Gholam Shakuri who lives in the United States and is a member of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO)," Salehi was quoted by Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat as saying in Saudi Arabia.

The United States alleges Gholam Shakuri co-conspired with an Iranian-American car salesman, Manssor Arbabsiar, to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

While Arbabsiar is in US custody, US officials say they believe Shakuri is in Iran and they have called on Tehran to turn him over to face charges.

Iran has strongly denied any involvement in the alleged plot.

It has also suggested that the Shakuri being sought is part of the terrorist MKO, a Paris-based Iranian exile group, that aims to overthrow the Islamic Republic and has so far staged hundreds of terrorist operations inside and outside Iran.

Both Iran and the United States consider the group to be a terrorist organization.
Salehi made the comments in an interview with Asharq al-Awsat during a visit to Riyadh for the Tuesday funeral of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz.

In the exchange, the Iranian foreign minister again denied that his country plotted to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir.

"We reject these accusations. There is no justification for Iran, which is a brotherly country to Saudi Arabia, to do such an act. It’s an American accusation – they want to create divisions between Muslim countries and specially the two most important countries in the Islamic world, Saudi Arabia and Iran," he said.

He also noted that Arbabsiar had pleaded not guilty in a New York court this week to the charges, and ridiculed the idea that Iran would engage such a character in the alleged plot.

Even before the plot claims, the ties between the two regional rivals were strained over Saudi Arabia’s military assistance to Bahrain to put down pro-democracy protests by peaceful demonstrators.

Iran and Saudi Arabia have had some differences during the last three decades after the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran as Riyadh is considered a main US ally and always tries to materialize the US interests in the region.

On the opposite, Tehran is an arch foe of the White House and represents independent nations who do not sway under the pressure of any superpower. It is seeking its own national interests and many world states have pinned hope on its success and progress as an independent, Muslim power.

IRGC Official Terms Iran Biggest Victim of Terrorism
A senior Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) official blasted the world arrogant powers for their assistance and support for anti-Iran terrorist groups, and described Iran as the biggest victim of terrorist acts in the world.

"The Iranian nation with more than 17,000 martyrs is the biggest victim of terrorism in the world," Supreme Leader’s Vice Representative to the IRGC said in the Central city of Qom on Saturday night.

He lambasted the western countries for their support for terrorist groups despite their hues and cries about campaign against terrorism, and said the world arrogant powers equipped terrorist groups against the Islamic Republic on the early days after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and they are now also striving to save the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).

The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s. The Baghdad government has assured Iranian officials and people that it is determined to expel the MKO from Iraq by the end of 2011.

Iraqi security forces took control of the training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf – about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad – in 2009 and detained dozens of the members of the terrorist group.

The Iraqi authority also changed the name of the military center from Camp Ashraf to the Camp of New Iraq.

The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.
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.

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.