|
Iraq says working to expel Iranian rebel
group
3.3.2008
|
|
|
 |
March 3, 2008
BAGHDAD -- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani
said on Sunday that Iraq was trying to expel an
Iranian rebel group, a key demand of Tehran,
although the U.S. military said most of the group's
fighters had already signed a ceasefire.
The Mujahadeen e-Khalq (MEK) group is described by
the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations as the largest
and most militant group opposed to the Islamic
Republic of Iran.
"The presence of those terrorists is forbidden by
the constitution and we are working to get rid of
them," Talabani said of the MEK at a news conference
in Baghdad with visiting Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.
The MEK is listed by the United States and European
Union as a terrorist organisation but its stand
against Iran has won it some support from U.S. and
European lawmakers,www.ekurd.net
the Council on Foreign
Relations says. |
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, and his
Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani hold hands during a
welcome ceremony in Baghdad, Sunday, March 2, 2008 |
U.S. military spokesman Major Winfield Danielson
said there was a group of about 3,360 MEK under
"protected person status" at a refugee camp in
Diyala province northeast of Baghdad.
"Though there may be some individual members still
at large somewhere, I have seen no reports of any
armed and organized MEK group still operating inside
Iraq," Danielson said in an e-mail to Reuters.
Danielson said some of those at the camp had chosen
to seek refugee status within Iraq.
He said the MEK fighters at the camp had agreed to
give up their arms in exchange for the protected
persons status and had signed a ceasefire letter in
April 2003, one month after the U.S.-led invasion of
Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said after a
later meeting with Ahmadinejad that Iraq would
attempt to expel all of what he described as
terrorist organisations, including al Qaeda, the MEK
and the Turkey's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Reuters
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 