Iran Regrets British Court Ruling on MKO

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran on Sunday said it hoped that the British government would not accept the decision by the Proscribed Organizations Appeal Commission in London to remove the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), from a list of banned terrorist organizations.

Iran considers the MKO a terrorist group for its direct involvement in the assassination of hundreds of civilians and high-ranking Iranian officials.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in his weekly press briefing that the London court decision was regrettable and hoped the British government would comply with its international obligations and not accept the ruling.

The spokesman added that there should be common efforts for fighting terrorism rather than adopting “double standards.”

Saeed Jalili, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), was in London on Friday and discussed the issue with British officials, who, according to Jalili, told him they have not yet accepted the court decision.

Jalili warned, however, that if London revised the terrorist status of the MKO, “then this would be a very bad record in the British history and gravely disliked by the Iranian people.”

He added that the European Union and even the US State Department – “definitely not a friend of the Islamic Republic” – have put the MKO on the terrorist list.

After the group was expelled from France in the 1980s, former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein allocated a military base to the MKO near the border with Iran.

Before the collapse of the Saddam regime, the MKO supported by the Iraqi army invaded Iranian territory several times, leading to clashes with Iranian forces and casualties on both sides.

Since Saddam’s fall, the US has reportedly used the MKO to gather intelligence on Iran.