Iran Summons French Ambassador over MKO Gathering

In a Wednesday statement, Qassemi said the director general of the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s Europe Department summoned French Ambassador Francois Senemaud on Tuesday to express the Islamic Republic’s harsh protest against France for its support for the MKO terrorist group.

“The director general also emphasized that no extremist group with terrorist nature – even if it is trivial or small – should be provided with an opportunity to promote extremism and terrorism under the pretext of freedom of expression,” he noted.

According to the spokesman, during the talks, the Iranian diplomat also expressed the country’s protest over the MKO’s annual gathering in Paris attended by a number of current and former extremist officials of the US as well as their meddlesome and divisive statements against the Iranian nation.

The French ambassador, for his part, said he would immediately convey Iran’s protest to Paris and give its response to the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

The MKO held its annual meeting in Paris on Saturday with a number of American hawks such as Rudy Giuliani – Donald Trump’s personal lawyer – and other former US officials as well as former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in attendance.

Founded in the 1960s, the terror group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam kill thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed war imposed on Iran.