An Iraqi Foreign Ministry official has denied that his country is responsible for attacks carried out by the Iraq-based Iranian opposition group, Mujahideen Khalq, inside Iran.
The Iraqi News Agency (INA) quoted Undersecretary Nouri Al Wayyes as saying that the government “does not interfere in the affairs of such groups despite the fact that Iran has harbored a terrorist group, which claims it is an Iraqi opposition movement, and provides it with training and weapons.”
The official was referring to the Shiite Higher Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq led by Baqer Hakeem.
According to Wayyes, members of the group have revealed that it is linked to the United States in a conspiracy against Iraq.
The two opposition groups are responsible for trading missile attacks on Baghdad and Tehran.
Iranian sources claimed in a statement to Albawaba.com that Iraqi intelligence “provides Mujahideen Khalq with a full cover and support,” citing infiltrators captured by the Iranian authorities.
Iranian security forces say they destroyed all bases of the outlawed group in a missile attack on April 18 targeting Khalq bases and nearby border towns. The attack killed at least seven people, six of them Iraqis, while the seventh was a Mujahideen militiaman.
Tehran and Baghdad have yet to sign a formal peace treaty after their bloody 1980-1988 war, and the presence of armed opposition groups on each other's soil is a key obstacle to normalization of ties – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
