U.S. plans to remove MKO from terrorist list: report

TEHRAN,Sept.23(MNA) – The United States decided to remove the Mojahedin Khalq Organization from its list of terrorist groups, U.S. officials said on Friday, Reuters reported. According to the report, the officials said that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had made the decision to remove the MKO from the list and that it was expected to be formally announced in coming days. The State Department said that Clinton sent a classified communication to Congress on Friday regarding the future status of the organization, part of the formal notification process that would accompany removal from the terrorism list. “I am not in a position to confirm the contents of this, because it’s classified, but we anticipate being able to make a public announcement about it sometime before October 1,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. The U.S. decision comes after years of intense lobbying by the MKO, which marshaled the support of dozens of members of Congress as well as notable political, government, and media figures. The United States added that the MKO to its official list of foreign terrorist organizations in 1997 and had repeatedly said that its decision on the MKO’s terrorist designation hinged partly on the group’s remaining members leaving Camp Ashraf, an Iraqi base where they had lived for decades, and moving to a former U.S. military base in Baghdad from which they were expected to be resettled overseas. Officials said this week that the final large group of dissidents had moved from Camp Ashraf to the new location, ending a long standoff with Iraqi authorities.