Tehran, April 14: Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad says the majority of members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) will be allowed to return to Iran or another country.
“These individuals (MKO members) can return to Iran if they want or another country, so long as they do not have a criminal record in Iran or Iraq, and passports would be provided for them,” ISNA quoted Hassan Danaeifar as saying on Wednesday.
The ambassador said over 750 members of the group had returned to Iran from Camp Ashraf in recent years and added that only 100 of the nearly 3,000 residence of the camp had criminal records.
Many MKO members fled to Iraq in 1986 and set up Camp Ashraf in Diyala Province, near the Iranian border, to launch armed attacks against the Islamic Republic.
Earlier this week, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the cabinet is determined to shut down the Camp and disband the terrorist group.
Dabbagh further underlined that the ministers had decided that the MKO members would be forced to leave Iraq “through all means, including political, diplomatic, and cooperation with the United Nations and international organizations.”
The organization is known to have cooperated with the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussain in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.
Iran has repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to expel the group. The United States, however, has been blocking the expulsion efforts by pressuring the Iraqi government against the move.
——–Agencies