NCRI – Following remarks by Ali Khamenei, the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader, during his meeting with the Iraqi President on February 28 calling for implementation of a bilateral agreement to expel the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) from Iraq, and pursuant to a week-long visit to Iraq by Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the Iranian regime’s Expediency Council and a former president, the office of Iraq’s National Security Advisor issued a categorically false and misleading statement last night claiming, “The leaders of Camp Ashraf have refused to allow a committee from the Ministry of Human Rights to conduct its duty to establish the residents’ choice to return to Iran or leave for a third country.” The statement added, “The leaders of the camp also exercised their hegemony and control and deprived the residents of the camp the freedom of returning to Iran or to choose a third country.” The statement said, “The government will not back away from its decision to close the camp.”
These entirely false claims are part of a new plot against the residents of Ashraf and at the same time a cover-up for recent unlawful positions and measures by Iraq’s National Security Advisor against Ashraf residents which have aroused widespread protests by the international community.
The truth is that the residents of Ashraf and its officials have extended their full cooperation to an Iraqi delegation which apparently wanted to interview the residents. Ashraf camp’s officials prepared buildings and premises for interviews at a location desired by the delegation. On February 25 and 26 the delegation privately interviewed 182 of the residents without the presence of any other members of the PMOI without any problem. US military officers were present in most of the interview sessions. The International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as UNAMI, were also aware of the interviews.
But it seems that the Iraqi security official who had been angered by Ashraf residents’ insistence on their legitimate rights, decided to discontinue the interviews without any pre-notification following Khamenei’s February 28 remarks and now the office of the National Security Advisor is distorting the facts to meet with its commitments to the clerical regime in Iran. The American and Iraqi officials stationed in Ashraf and relevant international organizations are aware of continuous inquiries by Ashraf residents about the resumption of the interviews.
The Iranian Resistance warns that such actions prepare the grounds for a human tragedy, and calls on all international organizations and specially the International Committee of the Red Cross and UNAMI to be present in Ashraf and to neutralize the conspiracies dictated by the Iranian regime.
The Iranian Resistance also calls for the guaranteed protection of Ashraf residents by US forces according to the US Government’s international obligations, and calls for a return to the circumstances prior to January 2009.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
March 14, 2009