Iranian exile group removed from US terror list

29 September CNN

The Iranian exile group Mujahedin-e-Khalq has been removed from a State Department terror list, officials said . The group was put on the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, which includes more than 50 groups like al Qaeda and Hezbollah, in 1997 because of the killing of six Americans in Iran in the 1970s and an attempted attack against the Iranian mission to the United Nations in 1992. However, since 2004 the United States has considered the group, which has lived for more than 25 years at a refugee camp in Iraq, "noncombatants" and "protected persons" under the Geneva Conventions.

Mujahedin-e-Khalq's move from Camp Ashraf is nearing completion under the auspices of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq. The members are relocating to a temporary site there before being resettled in third countries. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was under a court order to decide by October 1 whether to remove the group from the terror list.

"With today's actions, the department does not overlook or forget the MEK's past acts of terrorism, including its involvement in the killing of U.S. citizens in Iran in the 1970s and an attack on U.S. soil in 1992," the State Department said in a statement.

"The department also has serious concerns about the MEK as an organisation, particularly with regard to allegations of abuse committed against its own members. "The Secretary's decision today took into account the MEK's public renunciation of violence, the absence of confirmed acts of terrorism by MEK for more than a decade, and their cooperation in the peaceful closure of Camp Ashraf, their historic paramilitary base," the statement said.