28 Mar 2024
Tuesday 3 September 2013 - 16:30
Story Code : 47820

Senior MP urges UN to enlist MKO as terrorist group

[caption id="attachment_30951" align="alignright" width="180"] File photo shows members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).[/caption]
TEHRAN (FNA)- A prominent Iranian legislator called on the United Nations to enlist the outlawed Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, NCR and PMOI) as a terrorist organization instead of voicing support for the grouplet.


Member of the parliaments National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Nozar Shafiyees remarks came after the UN condemned the killing of MKO members, including seven of its leaders, during Sunday clashes in the Camp of New Iraq (formerly known as Camp Ashraf in Iraq).

He underlined that support for the MKO violates the UN charter, and said, This organization should enlist the MKO as a terrorist group and combat real terrorism in a bid to reinvigorate its structure and attain its lost status, Shafiyee said on Tuesday.

Following the Sunday events in Camp of New Iraq, the MKO claimed that Iraqi security forces have entered its camp in the Eastern province of Diyala on Sunday, and killed more than 50 of its members. However, Iraqi officials denied any involvement in the incident.

Ali al-Moussawi, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, confirmed that some MKO members had been killed, but said the deaths were the result of infighting among the camp residents.

The MKO was a long-standing member of the US State Departments list of terrorist organizations, but after heavy lobbying the group was dropped from the list last year. The group was allied to Saddam Hussein and retains a significant presence at Camp Liberty, and formerly at Camp Ashraf (its main training camp) during the US occupation.

The MKO was a long-standing member of the US State Departments list of terrorist organizations, but after heavy lobbying the group was dropped from the list last year. The group was allied to Saddam Hussein and retains a significant presence at Camp Liberty, and formerly at Camp Ashraf (its main training camp) during the US occupation.

The MKO 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 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 eventually took the MKO off the US terror list.

The US formally removed the MKO from its list of terror organizations in early September 2012, one week after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent the US Congress a classified communication about the move. The decision made by Clinton enabled the group to have its assets under US jurisdiction unfrozen and do business with American entities, the State Department said in a statement at the time.

In September 2012, the last groups of the MKO terrorists left Camp Ashraf, their main training center in Iraq's Diyala province. They have been transferred to Camp Liberty which lies Northeast of the Baghdad International Airport. Only 80 MKO members were still in Camp Ashraf on Sunday when clashes broke out.

By Fars News Agency

 

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