Updated on
Summary US has removed People's Mujahedeen of Iran from its blacklist of designated terror groups.
The United States on Friday removed an Iranian opposition group, the Peoples Mujahedeen of Iran, from its blacklist of designated terror groups after years of intense lobbying.The move, ending a complex legal battle fought through US and European courts, came just days ahead of a US appeals court October 1 deadline forcing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to decide the groups fate.The State Department said that Clinton decided to revoke the designation of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) and its aliases as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under the Immigration and Nationality Act and to delist the MEK as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224.The MEK, whose leadership is based in Paris, has invested much money and years of intense lobbying to be taken off the list.The cult-like leftwing group was founded in the 1960s to oppose the shah of Iran, and after the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted him it took up arms against Irans clerical rulers.MEK leader Maryam Rajavi said in a statement from Paris that she welcomed and appreciated Clintons decision to delist the movement.This has been the correct decision, albeit long overdue, in order to remove a major obstacle in the path of the Iranian peoples efforts for democracy, she said in the statement.A group of MEK members waved Iranian flags, danced and sang in Farsi at a sidewalk celebration outside the main State Department entrance. The group, which included people of all ages, occasionally chanted Thank you, thank you in English.The MEK says it has now laid down its arms and is working to overthrow the Islamic regime in Tehran through peaceful means.But in its note about delisting the MEK, the State Department stressed that it had not forgotten the groups militant past.With todays actions, the Department does not overlook or forget the MEKs past acts of terrorism, including its involvement in the killing of US citizens in Iran in the 1970s and an attack on US soil in 1992, it said.
