Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in a letter to the Security Council last week condemned the US’s support for the banned Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) and held Washington responsible for acts of terrorism carried out by the group.
In the letter, Gholam Ali Khoshroo said, “The Islamic Republic of Iran strongly condemns the US government’s illegal measures against the Iranian people, including its support for and financing of Monafeqin (MKO) as a terrorist group,” Tasnim News Agency reported on Tuesday.
Slamming the US backing for MKO as a violation of international law and the UN Charter, the envoy took a swipe at senior American officials, including US President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former House speaker Newt Gingrich, for attending a June 30 gathering of the MKO, which he said is promoting violence against the people of Iran.
He also decried the US government’s decision to remove MKO from the list of terrorist organizations in 2012, describing it as a testimony to Washington’s double standards and selective policies in the war on terrorism.
The MKO–listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community–fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq and was given a special camp by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
They openly fought on the side of Saddam during the brutal Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-88). They were also involved in the bloody repression of Shia Muslims in southern Iraq in 1991 and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds. The notorious group is also responsible for killing large numbers of civilians and officials in Tehran after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
More than 17,000 Iranians, many of them civilians, have been killed at the hands of terrorists including MKO in different acts of terrorism like bombings in public places, and targeted killings.
