Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Monday lambasted the recent move by European and British lawmakers to remove the anti-Iran terrorist group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), from the US black list. “Utilizing the MKO/PMOI/MEK, which is a used card, would be useless for the westerners,”Hassan Qashqavi told reporters in a weekly press conference here in Tehran on Monday.
Referring to the move by the European Parliament to demand Washington to strike the name of the MKO off the US list of terrorist groups, Reza Talayee Nik told FNA that the West is seeking to make an instrumental use of the MKO in confrontation with Iran, using the group as a pressure lever against the Islamic Republic. .”Placing the name of the Monafeqin (the Hypocrites, as MKO is referred to in Iran) in the list of terrorist groups or delisting it does not take place in accordance with a stable policy in Europe ..
A senior Iranian dignitary describes the EU-led decision to remove the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) from the terror blacklist as a ‘strategic mistake’…”It is the European Union’s strategic mistake to hold hope on the MKO because the terrorist group has no social or popular base in Iran,”he added. The lawmaker said the mistake by European countries would be in Iran’s favor because the”West has no concrete information and analysis about the MKO.”
Saying that the western countries follow no specific logic in their behaviors, member of Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Heshmatolah Falahat Pisheh told FNA on Sunday that if they had a certain definition for terrorism, they would not strike the name of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) off the list of terrorist groups..
… Also regarding US State Department recent report that has called Iran one of the main sponsors of terrorism, he said Iran has always been one of the “main victims of terrorism” and has lost 16,000 of its nationals in Mujahidin Khalq Organization (MKO) terror acts. “The main emblematic of state terrorism is Israel and its main sponsor is the US, thus Iran can’t be labeled in this way, all and everybody should have the cause of fight against terrorism in a non-political atmosphere.” …
In a face to face meeting of the Cabinet with people of 17th, 18th, 19th municipality districts of Tehran, he added that the Iraq government has the choice to take a decision regarding expulsion of MKO/PMOI/MEK from its territory. Countries claiming to fight terrorism should not deal with terrorist group whose hands are stained with Iranians’ bloods in a double-standard manner, he said.
The Deputy of Iran’s Foreign Ministry Director General for human rights and women criticized the EU double standards on terrorism. The Iranian official also called on the Czech official who is the current holder of the EU’s rotating presidency, to follow an unchanging and logical approach regarding terrorism..The EU has already removed the name of Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/PMOI/MEK) from its terrorist black list
Although the EU has removed the name of MKO from its terror list, the notorious MKO terror group is still being monitored by Germany’s domestic Verfassungsschutz intelligence agency, a high-level German government official, requesting anonymity told IRNA recently in Berlin…The MKO has been involved in the mass murders of thousands of innocent Iranians over the past 30 years.
It should be clarified whether the EU has ignored the crimes of the group in the past or they have viewed the case through political considerations, he pointed out. The so-called advocates of human rights have closed their eyes on assassination of thousands of innocent people by the group and therefore they should be accountable to their families of victims and millions of Iranian citizens, Dorri Najafabadi said.
Iran has condemned the removal of the MKO/PMOI terrorist group from the European Union’s terror list. Earlier today, Iran’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan Naser Hamidi Zare’ said that exclusion of the group from the list was a new Western trap for the Islamic state, accusing the West of operating a policy of double-standards in dealing with terrorist groups.