Iran’s Zarif Slams EU for Harboring MKO Terror Group
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif censured the European Union for harboring MKO terrorists, saying that leveling “accusations against Iran will not absolve Europe of responsibility for housing members of the terror group.
“Europeans, incl Denmark, Holland & France, harbor MEK—who killed 12000 Iranians & abetted Saddam's crimes against Iraqi Kurds—as well as other terrorists staging murder of innocent Iranians from Europe. Accusing Iran won't absolve Europe of responsibility for harboring terrorists,” Zarif tweeted on Tuesday night.
It came after the European Union imposed its first sanctions against Iran since the 2015 Iran nuclear accord was implemented three years ago.
Tuesday’s sanctions added two Iranian individuals and a unit of the Iranian intelligence services to the bloc’s “terror list”. The targets’ assets will be frozen and other restrictions put in place.
Earlier on Tuesday, Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said in a tweet that the “EU just agreed to enact sanctions against an Iranian Intelligence Service for its assassination plots on European soil.”
The MKO or MEK - listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community - fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq and was given a camp by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
They fought on the side of Saddam during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-88). They were also involved in the bloody repression of Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq in 1991 and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.
The notorious group is also responsible for killing thousands of Iranian civilians and officials 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 the MKO in different acts of terrorism including bombings in public places, and targeted killings.
