Iran: Despite assassinating 1000s, MKO sheltered by US, Europe

Iran has lambasted the United States and the European Union for providing a safe haven for the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group, which murdered thousands of innocent Iranians and notoriously sided with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during his 1980-88 war on the Islamic Republic.

According to Press TV, in a post on its Twitter account on Saturday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry commemorated the National Day of Fight Against Terrorism.

The occasion commemorates the 1981 assassination of then President Mohammad Ali Raja'ei and Prime Minister Mohammad Javad Bahonar.

The two and several other officials had convened at the Tehran office of the Iranian prime minister in a meeting of Iran’s Supreme Defense Council when a bomb explosion ripped through the building.

Survivors recounted that an aide, identified as Massoud Kashmiri, had brought a briefcase into the conference room and then left.

Subsequent investigations revealed that Kashmiri was an MKO operative, who had infiltrated the then-prime minister’s office disguised as a state security official.

The MKO has conducted numerous assassinations and bombings against Iranian statesmen and civilians since the 1979 victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Its members fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq, where they enjoyed Saddam's backing.

Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians martyred in terrorist assaults since the Revolution, about 12,000 have fallen victim to the MKO’s acts of terror.

The anti-Iran cult was on the US list of terrorist organizations until 2012. Major European countries, including France, have also removed it from their blacklists.

A few years ago, MKO elements were relocated from their Camp Ashraf in Iraq’s Diyala Province to Camp Hurriyet (Camp Liberty), a former US military base in Baghdad, and later sent to Albania.

MKO terrorists enjoy freedom of activity in the US and Europe, and even hold meetings with American and EU officials.

ME