Collaboration between Egypt, Baath Party to Equip MKO

The popular debaathification movement in Iraq disclosed that Egypt's intelligence service and the former Baath party in the Saddam-ruled Iraq ran clandestine cooperation to equip the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) with advanced weapons to perform terrorist attacks against Iran.

According to a Saturday report released by the website of the Habilian Association, an Iran-based human rights group, the debaathification movement has announced that it has accurate and precise information on a relevant meeting between the former Baath MP, Saleh al-Matlak, and Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Sulaiman.

 

During the meeting they decided that Matlak took the commanding responsibility of the Baathi forces in Egypt, and that both sides should make efforts to consolidate the relations between the MKO and the Baath party and create a joint operation room for controlling MKO activities in Iran and Iraq, the report said.

 

According to the report, the Egyptian side had also announced its readiness to establish a camp for the MKO near the Baath party's camp in Egypt.

The two sides had also ratified to equip the MKO with advanced weapons and later did so, the report added.

 

The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a letter last year in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).

 

The group, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets.

 

The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran's new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.

 

The terrorist group joined Saddam's army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.

The MKO has been in Iraq's Diyala province since the 1980s.

 

Iraqi security forces took control of the training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf - about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad - earlier this year and detained dozens of the members of the terrorist group.

The Iraqi authority also changed the name of the military center from Camp Ashraf to the Camp of New Iraq.