Iran Applauds French Crackdown on MKO Opposition

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, June 18, 2003

Iran Applauds French Crackdown on MKO Opposition

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Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi Tuesday welcomed France's action in arresting members of Iran's anti-government terrorist group Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), describing it as a "positive step."

"We expected French authorities, in line with European Union provisions branding the group as a terrorist organization, to take actions against them," the official news agency IRNA quoted the spokesman as saying.

He said this action conforms to France's international responsibilities, and Iran expects France to treat the group similar to other dangerous terrorist organizations.

French anti-terrorist police Tuesday arrested 165 members of MKOon the outskirts of Paris, the French Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Some 1,200 police targeted more than a dozen locations in the northwestern outskirts of Paris, including the European headquarters of MKO in the town of Auvers-sur-Oise. The operation had succeeded in effectively dismantling MKO in France, the statement said.

The MKO is notorious for political assassinations and terrorist bombings. It was outlawed by the Iranian government in early 1980s and took refuge in Iraq under the toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The group is classified as a "terrorist" organization by the United States and the European Union.

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