Iran slams delisting of exile group

U.S. removal of militants from terror list called double standard

— Iran condemned on Saturday the Obama administration for taking an Iranian militant group formerly allied with Saddam Hussein off the U.S. terrorism list, saying it shows Washington’s “double standards.”

The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, which began as a guerrilla movement fighting Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, helped overthrow the monarch in 1979, then quickly fell out with the Islamic Republic’s first leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. It fought in the 1980s alongside Saddam’s forces in the eightyear Iran-Iraq war but disarmed after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The State Department delisted the group on Friday, meaning that any assets it has in the United States are unblocked and Americans can do business with the organization. On Saturday, at their Paris headquarters, Mujahedeen-e-Khalq members gathered to celebrate, tossing flower petals and displaying photos of members killed in the past 15 years.

“We call on the international community to respect the will of the Iranian people for a regime change in Iran,” Maryam Rajavi, the Paris-based head of the exiled opposition group, said Saturday.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the delisting was “a violation of America’s legal and international obligations” that could threaten U.S. interests. The decision “will bring U.S. responsibility for past, present and future terrorist operations by this group,” the statement also said.

Iranian State TV criticized the decision, saying that the U.S. considered the group “good terrorists” and claims Washington is using the group to work against Tehran. State radio said the move highlights President Barack Obama’s anti-Iranian sentiments.

“There is much evidence of the group being involved in terrorist activities. Delisting them shows America’s double standard policy on terrorism,” state TV said. The U.S. distinguishes between “good and bad terrorists” and Mujahedeen-e-Khalq are now “good terrorists because the U.S. is using them against Iran,” the report also said, adding that Washington and Israel use the group to spy on Iran’s nuclear program.

The U.S. and its allies accuse Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has denied the claims, saying the program is peaceful and is intended for electricity generation and scientific research.

The State Department said Mujahedeen-e-Khalq hasn’t committed terror for more than a decade. The group has also complied with demands that more than 3,000 of its once-armed members abandon their base in Iraq near the Iranian border for a camp outside Baghdad, an essential step to ending their decades-long presence in Iraq.

The group claims it is seeking regime change through peaceful means, aiming to replace Tehran’s clerical system with a secular government.

However, a senior State Department official suggested that removing the group from the U.S. terrorist list does not translate into a shared common front against the Islamic Republic. The official said Washington does not view Mujahedeen-e-Khalq as an opposition movement that can promote democratic values in Iran. The official on Friday briefed reporters on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

In a rare interview on Friday, Rajavi said “the most important impact ... will be seen inside Iran.”

“The balance of power is going to change. For example, the first message for the Iranian people will be they won’t fear increasing their activity and increasing their demonstrations,” she said. The fear “will evaporate ... and that will lead to the expansion of anti-regime activities within Iran.”

Iran says MEK is responsible for the deaths of more than 12,000 Iranians over the past three decades, including senior government officials.

Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad said talks over his country’s development of enriched uranium will be more productive after the U.S. election and expressed optimism for progress.

“We have seen during many years that as we approach the United States presidential election, no important decisions are made,” Ahmadinejad said on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” according to a transcript. “Following the election, certainly the atmosphere will be much more stable, and important decisions can be made and announced.”

Ahmadinejad said meetings over Iran’s nuclear program with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany, will result in “a very important decision.”

Obama, told the U.N. General Assembly last week that time “is not unlimited” to reach a diplomatic resolution and vowed that the U.S. “will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

Information for this article was contributed by Ali Akbar Dareini and employees of The Associated Press; and by Susan Decker, Glen Carey, Yeganeh Salehi, Flavia Krause-Jackson, Calev Ben-David, Roxana Tiron and Indira A.R. Lakshmanan of Bloomberg News.

Front Section, Pages 10 on 09/30/2012

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