Iranian opposition group criticizes Iraq ban
Published: Wednesday, June 18, 2008
15:50GMT—11:50AM/EST
MEK – IRAQ – BAN
Washington, 18 June (IranVNC)—The Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization [MEK] said on Wednesday that Iraq’s latest move to ban dealings with the organization reflected the pressures that Iran exercises on Baghdad.
The statement came one day after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s cabinet accused the MEK of interfering in Iraq’s internal affairs.
“The cabinet decided to ban any dealings with this organization by any Iraqi or foreign individual, organization or party,” Mehr News reported an Iraqi government statement as reading on Tuesday.
The government also said that those who violate the ban will be charged under the anti-terror law, Mehr News added.
“The [government] stance is the reflection of hysterical pressures of the religious fascism ruling Iran and its embassy in Baghdad on the Iraqi government to take revenge on the (MEK) because 3 million Iraqi Shiites have rejected the Iranian regime,” the MEK said, according to AP.
Iran has long charged the opposition group, which received support from Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war, with terrorist operations targeting Iranian officials. When the United States overthrew Saddam’s regime in 2003, it demilitarized the group, and confined its members to Camp Ashraf northeast of Baghdad, under the protection of the multinational forces.
The United States designated the MEK as a terrorist organization in 1997, but the decision is up for review in October.
Sources: Associated Press, Mehr News Agency
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