Eurasia Press & News
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran on Thursday condemned a British court ruling paving the way for the lifting of a ban on an anti-Iran terrorist group, and said such a move would promote “terrorism.”
The Court of Appeal in London ruled on Wednesday there were “no valid grounds” to contend that a British panel made legal errors when it ordered the Mujahedeen-e Khalq Organization (MKO) to be removed from a terrorist blacklist.
Iran “strongly condemns the removal of Hypocrites (MKO) from a terrorist list and regards this ruling as political, legally baseless and a sign of Britain’s dual approach to terrorism,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.
“The massive measures taken by the Hypocrites against the Iranian people and officials are known to everyone,” he said in a statement, adding that revoking the ban “will only help to promote terrorism and violence.”
The MKO is on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze, and has been designated by the US government as a foreign terrorist organization.
The group welcomed Wednesday’s ruling and called for its removal from the EU list.
Formed in the 1960s in opposition to the rule of US-backed shah, the MKO took part in the 1979 Islamic revolution to take control of Iran, but soon changed course and turned into the main armed opposition to the Islamic Republic and has, ever since, assassinated scores of people and officials. The MKO was an ally of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran in the 1980s.
