Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for European Affairs Mahdi Safari has lamented the European Union’s “double-standard and hypocritical” approach toward terrorism and warned about dire consequences of compromise with terrorists. The comments by Safari came as foreign ministers of the 27-nation EU removed the name of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) from its terror list on January 26.
The family members of victims of MKO terrorist attacks have cautioned the EU against becoming the organization’s”partner in crime”.”As victims of MKO terrorism, we advise the European Union not to turn into the group’s collaborator in their atrocities against the Iranian nation,”reads a statement from the family members.
Iran has filed a complaint to the UN on the recent EU decision to remove the Mujahedin Khalq Organization[PMOI/MKO from its list of terror groups.”The European Union must realize that a political approach to terrorism, which threatens the lives and security of people around the world, is totally unacceptable for the global public opinion,”Iran’s permanent envoy to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaei, wrote in a Wednesday letter to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Iran is mulling over a plan to take terrorist MKO/ PMOI members to court following the European Union’s decision to lift a ban on the group. Iranian lawmakers are devising a plan to try the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/PMOI/MEK) members who have taken an active part in terrorist activities against the country.
Hundreds of Iranian students, pupils and families of veterans of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) staged a protest gathering in Tehran Sunday against the decision by European Union foreign ministers to remove the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI) from their list of terrorist organizations. The crowd first gathered in front of the French embassy in Tehran and shouted slogans against France and the EU for their intention to approve the decision in favour of the PMOI at a meeting Monday in Brussels.
Two Iranian exiles detained on Sunday. Iran is demanding that Finland extradite two Iranian men whom it accuses of being members of the MKO/PMOI/MEK organisation, which it considers a terrorist group. The two were stopped while entering Finland on Sunday…The court let the men go, but they were ordered not to leave the country.The Ministry of Justice will decide on the extradition request. Helsingin Sanomat was not able to reach Minister of Justice Tuija Brax (Green).
Iran strongly condemned the United States for double standards in its treatment of terrorist groups such as the MKO.”The Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by many countries. The US State Department has also identified the group as a foreign terrorist organization,”Iran’s mission to the UN said in a letter to The Chicago Tribune published on Tuesday.
the Chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council referred to the Iranian and Iraqi nations’ hatred towards the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) as an indication of close ties and feelings between the officials and people of the two countries. The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.
Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned Jordan’s Ambassador to Tehran Ahmad Jalal al-Mefleh on Saturday to voice Iran’s protest against Amman’s support for the terrorist group, Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization, and participation of the Arab country’s officials at an MKO banquet in Paris. …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
Hasan Kazemi-Qomi said,”Apart from their criminal leadership, many members of this little group [PMOI / MKO/MEK] are repentant and regretful. In the past couple of years we have witnessed a number of them repatriated and returned to their families. What they explained is a picture of dejection and suffering. Many have endured hardship and they would have taken any opportunity to remove themselves from this grouplet earlier had it been available. Currently, many of them those who were duped and are repentant, would like to return to Iran and we would have to review this matter.”