Iraq

New committee to follow”Mojahedin Khalq”file

Parliamentary Commission on Security and Defense and Prime Minister Maliki announce a new committee to follow "Mojahedin Khalq" file .

The Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on Security and Defense, revealed Thursday, that his committee had agreed with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to form a committee to follow up the file of the MKO. He also agreed to raise the financial budget of the military institutions.

Said Hassan Sanead, told the Kurdish news agency that the Parliamentary Commission on Security and Defense met with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as a leader of the armed forces and discussed with him the three major security files of the country.

Sanead added Maliki agreed to set up a committee to follow up Mujahideen file, which will take responsibility for coordination between the Iraqi and Iranian governments and the leadership of the MKO in Camp Ashraf in Iraq’s Diyala.

Radio Nawa, Baghdad – Translated by Iran Interlink

June 12, 2011 0 comment

Iraq

MEK’s U.S. Congress lobbyists expelled from Iraq as”undesirable”

Members of Congress who had been in Baghdad on an official visit were expelled from Iraq on Friday.

According to reliable sources the government decided to expel a delegation, chaired by [Rep. R-Calif.] Dana Rohrabacher, as undesirable elements. The U.S. Congress called on the Iraqi government to pay compensation for losses to the U.S. army in Iraq, pointing out that the U.S. government cannot afford to incur huge amounts of financial expenditure in light of the current economic hardship.

A member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Congress and head of the delegation that visited Iraq, Dana Rohrabacher, during a press conference held at the headquarters of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad today, attended by "Alsumaria News", began, "The congressional delegation met Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki yesterday and discussed with him the subject of compensation on the American portion of the funds disbursed by the losses in Iraq and his army”, noting that, "the U.S. government cannot continue to pay the enormous sums while undergoing a critical economic situation."

He went on to say, "Libya is also obliged to pay a portion of the costs to the American side after the situation has become stabilised…,"

Almada News, Baghdad – translated by Iran Interlink

June 12, 2011 0 comment

Iraq

Zebari assures Eu ambassadors of humanitarian services to Camp Ashraf

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari in Baghdad on Thursday met with EU ambassadors to Iraq, and discussed the joint relations and the political situation in Iraq and Arab countries.

During the meeting, Minister Zebari reviewed his government’s plans and programs during the next stage.

He also addressed the issue of Camp Ashraf, which houses members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization.

Zebari said that the authorities are in full control have taken a series of measures to ensure the provision of humanitarian services, health care and food to residents of the camp…

Alhorra Television, translated by Iran Interlink

May 21, 2011 0 comment

Iraq

Iraq determined to close Camp Ashraf

Iraq’s foreign minister says Baghdad is determined to close Camp Ashraf and expel Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorists from the country.
Iraq's foreign minister
“We have called on the international community and European countries to accept residents of the Camp Ashraf so the camp could be closed,” Hoshyar Zebari told Mehr News Agency on Sunday.

Earlier in May, the US proposed a plan to relocated Camp Ashraf residents to other parts of Iraq before their final resettlement in third countries.

Members of the MKO fled to Iraq in 1986, where they enjoyed the support of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and set up Camp Ashraf in Diyala Province, near the Iranian border.
The group has carried out numerous acts of terror and violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.

The terror organization is also known to have cooperated with Saddam in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds in the north.

Tehran has repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to expel the group. Following the ouster of Saddam in 2003, the Iraqi government has set numerous deadlines for the terrorist group to leave the country but MKO has managed to maintain Camp Ashraf due to US backing.

Zebari said relations between Iran and Iraq is increasing, predicting that bilateral ties would develop further in the future.

May 17, 2011 0 comment

Iraq

Zebari:Iraq has decided to close Camp Ashraf

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari says the decision to shut down the Camp Ashraf has been made by his country’s government.

Camp Ashraf is a place in Iraq, where the members of the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization, have been confined since the fall of the Baathist regime in 2003.

Speaking to the Mehr News Agency in Baghdad, Zebari said that Iraq has asked the international institutions and European countries to accept the MKO members after they are deported.
Ibrahim Jafari, a former Iraqi prime minister and a sitting lawmaker, also says the demand for expulsion of MKO was made by all Iraqi groups and people.

Since 2003, when Saddam Hussein was outsted, the Iraqi people have sought the expulsion of the terrorist group from their country, Jafari told the Mehr News Agency.

The Iraqi people have no positive image of the MKO members and that is the reason behind their demand, he noted.

In addition, an Iraqi news agency recently reported that during a telephone conversation with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Zebari said the Iraqi government had decided to expel the terrorist group within six months.

Thousands of Iraqis recently held demonstrations in front of Camp Ashraf, in which they demanded that the Iraqi government deport all the MKO members residing in the country.

The Saddam regime used MKO forces as mercenaries in suppressing dissident Shias and Kurds in south and northern Iraq.

May 16, 2011 0 comment

Iraq

Hundreds in Diala protest against Mojahedin Khalq

Hundreds of Diala residents staged on Friday a massive protest in front of Ashraf Camp demanding to deport members of the Mujahedeen Khalq Organization (MKO) out of the province, Khales mayor said.

“The protestors called for deporting the members of the organization for their involvement in supporting armed groups and destabilizing the security condition in Diala,” Uday al-Khadran told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Hundreds in Diala protest against Mojahedin Khalq
The members of the organization live in a fenced-off camp in Diala, north of Baghdad.

The MKO, which began as part of the Iranian resistance to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s rule in the mid-1960s, was driven into exile after Iran’s 1979 revolution and re-formed in Iraq, where it was nurtured by Saddam Hussein.

After the American invasion, it was disarmed and its members recognized as refugees by the United Nations.

May 8, 2011 0 comment

Iraq

Iraqi people want MEK terrorists out of Iraq

Al-Masar television presented a one hour live discussion on the topic ‘people want Monafeqin Khalq terrorists out of Iraq’. (The term Monafeqin is a religious term meaning hypocrites and is the preferred name among Muslims for the Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq cult.)

Guests, Mrs Ahlam al-Maliki, head of the Baghdad based humanitarian NGO Baladiyeh Foundation and Anne Singleton, leading expert on the Mojahedin-e Khalq terrorist cult from Iran-Interlink in the UK, took part in the one hour live programme.

Presenter Dr. Qeis al-Atwani described the problems caused by having this foreign terrorist group left in Iraq after the removal of the group’s former mentor Saddam Hussein in 2003..
The programme focused on the efforts of the Iraqi government to effect the removal of the group from Iraq. The Mojahedin-e Khaq was clearly responsible for thousands upon thousands of deaths among the Iraqi population, including the Anfal and the suppression of the Kurdish and Shiite uprisings following the 1991 First Gulf War. Iraqis across the political, religious and tribal spectrum bitterly resent that the Americans failed to deal properly with the group and that it was allowed to attempt to interfere in the democratisation process which has produced three freely elected governments since 2003.

Anne Singleton replied to viewers’ concerns that the group must be removed immediately. She told viewers they must step aside from their understandable anger and allow their government to take actions which will reflect well on their new democratic government. Rather than looking for quick political solutions which would inevitably involve more bloodshed – because this is what Mojahedin leader Massoud Rajavi wants – the government should involve groups like Iran-Interlink and the Baladiyeh Foundation to provide an effective and humanitarian outcome for the problem.

Al-Masar television

April 26, 2011 0 comment

Iraq

Iraq FM: Western Countries Who Care About MKO Can Take Them

Following a raid by the Iraqi military on the headquarters of the terrorist group the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has suggested that “countries who care about the fate and human rights of this group’s action … should welcome them and they should resettle them in their countries.”

Zebari made the remarks in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, just days after the Iraqi military launched a raid on Camp Ashraf, 60 kilometers North of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. The camp is home to the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI), a terrorist organisation much despised by the Iranian people. The United Nations says 34 people were killed during the raid on the camp at which some 3,500 members of the death cult are stationed.

Iraq
Zebari told RFE/RL :“The Iraqi Constitution prohibits the presence of mujahedin or any other militia groups from neighboring countries, whether it’s the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party], whether it’s the PJAK [Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan], or whoever to have presence on Iraqi territory and to launch attacks against our neighbors. Constitutionally, this is not allowed and the mujahedin or the MEK member [Mujahedin Khalq] of the Ashraf camp have to respect Iraqi law.”

“Iraq has a commitment not to extradite any of its members to Iran. Iraq has a commitment also to observe international humanitarian law and to have access by international organisations to them, like the United Nation missions, ICRC, and so on.”

Zebari continue: “No country in the world will tolerate any organisation to undermine its sovereignty, to defy its authority, and to act as if this is a liberated territory or a state within a state. So they have to abide by Iraqi rules and regulations, and we have called on European countries and others to resettle these peoples in their countries, for them to go on and continue their struggle. In Iraq, their presence is unacceptable.”

The Iraqi Foreign Minister said that his government’s decision to expel the group and set a deadline of the end of the year was “an Iraqi decision” while noting that the group was even “branded in the United States as a terrorist group, by the Department of State.”

“Those countries who care about the fate and human rights of this group’s action, should welcome them and they should resettle them in their countries. My government has requested such a thing from European countries and from other countries, to resettle members of the Ashraf camp in their countries.”

When asked where he saw the group’s members going, Zebari responded, “Wherever. Any country — in the northern countries, in Australia, in New Zealand, Canada, the United States, wherever.”

The PMOI is known by a number of different names including Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MEK) or (MKO), The National Liberation Army of Iran (the group’s armed wing) and the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a front group for the PMOI.

In the 80s, the group joined forces with the invading of Saddam Hussein and developed an intimate relationship with the Iraqi dictator at a time when Iranians were struggling to liberate the occupied Iranian territories. Due to the MKO’s traitorous actions and its role in the massacre of Iraqi Kurds and Marsh Arabs, it has no political base inside Iran and no genuine support or credibility among ordinary Iranians.

Eurasia Review

April 23, 2011 0 comment

Iraq

MEK Terrorists Interfering in Iraq Democratisation

Baladiyeh Foundation, a Baghdad based human rights NGO, invited Anne Singleton of Iran-Interlink in the UK to present a paper at the Mostanserieh University in Baghdad.

The meeting focused on the democratisation process in Iraq after the fall of the former regime.

Anne Singleton, a leading expert in the Mojahedin-e Khalq terrorist group, exposed the involvement of the MEK in disrupting this process. Since 2003, Iraq has held three free and fair democratic elections said Singleton, but the MEK is backed by elements in the US and Israel which want to impose their own agenda on Iraq. For this reason, the MEK, which occupies the only remaining untouched infrastructure of the former Saddam regime, has been active in training terrorist groups such as Al Qaida at its base in Diyala province, Camp New Iraq (formerly Ashraf). The MEK has also groomed and facilitated loyalists of the former Saddam regime to take part in the democratisation process in order to promote their interests.

Several prominent Iraqi personalities attended the meeting, including human rights promoters, sheikhs and members of the media.

Al Mostanserieh University, Baghdad

April 23, 2011 0 comment

Iraq

Iraq: MKO presence violates constitution

Iraq’s foreign minister says his country will not allow the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) to use Iraq’s soil as a launchpad to conduct its terrorist activities.

In an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Monday, Iraqi Hoshyar Zebari said, “The Iraqi Constitution prohibits the presence of MKO or any other militia groups to have presence on Iraqi territory and to launch attacks against our neighbors.” “Constitutionally, this is not allowed and the MKO members of the Ashraf camp have to respect Iraqi law,” he added.

Concerning Iraqi military’s raid on Camp Ashraf on April 8, Zebari said, “This was a military operation intended to take control of part of the territory. Ashraf camp is not a small camp; it is 50 kilometers large.”

“The Iraqi military extended its authority over about 20 kilometers of the camp. No country in the world will tolerate any organization to undermine its sovereignty, to defy its authority, and to act as if this is a liberated territory or a state within a state.” Zebari stated.

“So they have to abide by Iraqi rules and regulations, and we have called on European countries and others to resettle these peoples in their countries, for them to go on and continue their struggle. In Iraq, their presence is unacceptable,” Iraq’s top diplomat added.

The MKO was founded in Iran in the 1960s, but its members fled to Iraq in the 1980s after carrying out a series of assassinations and bombings inside the country.

The MKO cooperated with Saddam in suppressing the 1991 uprising in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.

Following the ouster of Saddam in 2003, the Iraqi government set numerous deadlines for the terrorist group to leave the country but MKO has managed to maintain Camp Ashraf due to US backing.

April 20, 2011 0 comment

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