Saudis’ Participation in MKO Meeting Is Nothing New: Iranian FM

Here’s IFP’s translation of Zarif’s remarks, as reported by Khabar Online.

“The MKO group has been present in France for many years. It is not the first time that they are organizing this political game. They hold it every year, and a number of people with clearly defective political background from different countries attend the meeting and deliver speeches,” Zarif said.

“It is nothing new, and their policies have always been the same,” he went on to say upon his arrival in the Kazakh capital of Astana on Tuesday, July 12.

“Many media outlets focused on the participation of a person who has been the creator of both Al Qaeda and Taliban and had a very shameful role in the Saudi regime’s actions in the region. He has unfortunately attended the meeting and delivered his speech, and this shows the incompetence and imprudence of such people, who have tied their future to terrorists just like what Saddam Hussein did,” he added.

A number of Saudi officials and supporters of MKO, including Saudi Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, attended the gathering of the terrorists in Paris on Saturday, July 9, and made anti-Tehran remarks.

The MKO – listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community – fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq and was given a camp by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

They fought on the side of Saddam during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-88). They were also involved in the bloody repression of Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq in 1991 and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.

The notorious group is also responsible for killing thousands of Iranian civilians and officials after the victory of the Islamic revolution in 1979.

More than 17,000 Iranians, many of them civilians, have been killed at the hands of the MKO in different acts of terrorism including bombings in public places, and targeted killings.