Americas

Americas

U.S. urges Iran’s exile group to exit camp in Iraq

07 July 2012 04:43 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA.The United States on Friday urged an Iranian exile group to exit the Ashraf Camp in Iraq, warning that any plan to wait out the Iraqi government is "irresponsible and dangerous," APA reports quoting Xinhua

Daniel Benjamin, coordinator for counterterrorism at the State Department, noted that the patience of the Iraqi government is " wearing thin" as he talked about the impasse over the relocation of the residents of the camp near the Iranian border.

"It is past time for the MEK to recognize that Ashraf is not going to remain an MEK base in Iraq," the ambassador told reporters via teleconference, noting "The Iraqi government is committed to closing it, and any plan to wait out the government in the hope that something will change is irresponsible and dangerous."

He was referring to the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), also known as the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran, a self-claimed Marxist and Islamic movement that was founded in 1965 in opposition to the shah of Iran and subsequently fought to oust the Islamic regime which took power in the 1979 revolution.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986 and set up Ashraf Camp in Diyala province as its headquarters, which once housed more than 3,300 Iranians and their families.

The MEK fighters were disarmed in June 2003 following the U.S.- led invasion of Iraq, and the camp was placed under the protection of the U.S. military police for five years before the Iraqi government took over the security responsibility.

Deadly clashes have occurred at the camp over the years, including one on April 8, 2011 in which 34 residents were killed when Iraqi forces in bulldozers and Humvees stormed the camp.

The Iraqi government announced relocation plans in December 2009, but the MEK refused to comply. A UN-brokered deal late last year allows the exiles to move to the grounds of Camp Liberty, the former U.S. military base near the Baghdad airport.

Ambassador Benjamin noted that some 2,000 residents have relocated, but the remaining 1,200 to 1,300 are holding at Ashraf Camp until various MEK demands are met by the Iraqi government.

The MEK was listed by the State Department as a terrorist organization for killing six Americans in the 1970s. A U.S. federal judge early last month gave the Obama administration until October to make a decision on whether to delist the group.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Congress in February that her decision would hinge in part on the MEK’s willingness to relocate peacefully.

"MEK leaders appear to believe that the secretary has no choice now but to delist them. That conclusion is quite plainly wrong," Benjamin stressed, urging the group to "act quickly" to complete the relocation and close Camp Ashraf to show it has taken on "a fundamentally different character."

The group has been campaigning for years for its removal from the terrorist list. The Washington Post said it has gained support from powerful U.S. politicians from both major parties in recent months, and the Department of Treasury is leading an investigation into whether payments of tens of thousands of dollars to some of them violated anti-terrorism laws.