EU Agrees To Take Iranian Group Off Terror List
Demonstrators outside the French Embassy in Iran protest the EU's expected decision on the MKO on January 25.
January 26, 2009
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -- European states have agreed to remove an Iranian opposition group in exile, the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), from an EU list of banned terrorist groups, an EU official said.
The official confirmed that EU foreign ministers approved a decision to take it off a list that includes Palestinian Hamas and Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers.
The MKO, also known as the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran, is the group that exposed Iran's covert nuclear program in 2002. It began as a leftist-Islamist opposition to the late shah of Iran and has bases in Iraq.
Western analysts say its support in Iran is limited because of its collaboration with Iraq during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. It remains banned in the United States.
MKO allies have repeatedly accused the EU -- which has led efforts to persuade Iran to curb its nuclear program -- of seeking to "appease" Tehran by keeping the group blacklisted.