US Urges PKK to Shelter MKO Members at Iran's Borders
FNA
The White House has in a message called on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to harbor the members of the anti-Iran terrorist group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), in the mountainous areas on the Iraq-Iran-Turkey borders, a PKK source disclosed on Tuesday.
"A message was sent from the White House officials to the leadership council of the PKK on Saturday demanding the PKK officials to permit the members of the MKO to settle in the Qandil Mountains at Iranian borders," a senior PKK official told FNA on the condition of anonymity.
Asked about the PKK incentives for accepting the US demand, the source revealed that Washington has vowed to stop Turkish Army attacks against the PKK in return for the Kurdish group's cooperation with the White House in this regard.
He underlined that the PKK is still mulling over the deal, but declined to reveal any further detail.
The source also reserved judgment over the PKK's possible response to the White House demand.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization internationally by a number of states and organizations, including the United States, the United Nations, NATO and the European Union.
The organization has been listed as one of the 12 active terrorist organizations in Turkey as of 2007 and Turkey labeled the organization as an ethnic secessionist organization that uses terrorism and the threat of force against both civilian and military targets for the purpose of achieving its political goal.
Also, the MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.
Before an overture by the EU, the MKO was on the European Union's list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visited Brussels and, despite the ban, enjoyed full freedom in Europe.
Some other members of the MKO who have had a role in the assassination of a large number of Iranian citizens and officials are currently living in France.
The group started assassination of Iranian citizens and officials after the Islamic Revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran's new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.
The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.
The terrorist group joined Saddam's army during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the war.
Iraqi security forces have recently taken control of the training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf - about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad - and detained dozens of the members of the terrorist group.
The Iraqi authority also changed the name of the military center from Camp Ashraf to the Camp of New Iraq.
