Canada to host MKO terror group's headquarters: Reports
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Canada will now house a group recognized as terrorist and known for conducting terror acts all due to its opposition to Iran and the Islamic Revolution.
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Members of the Ashraf-3 camp at the Iranian terror group's headquarters in Albania, where up to 3,000 MEK members reside at Ashraf-3 camp in Manza, Albania, Thursday, June 23, 2022 (AP)
The heads of the Iranian terrorist organization, Mujahedin-e-Khalk (MKO) are preparing to transfer their headquarters to Canada from Albania after the country's authority raided their headquarters back in June, Iranian media reported on Saturday.
The Albanian police in late June raided the country's MKO base to which its top brass was relocated from its base in Iraq, due to its violation of the US-mediated agreement allowing for their resettling in the country.
Originally, the deal was aimed at hosting a couple of thousand individuals disdain for which was growing after the toppling of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq; however, the organization members took to using their presence in the country as a base of operations for political activities, including carrying out cyberattacks and mass online harassment of opponents.
The MKO was violent in resisting the Albanian raid, resulting in the death of at least one person and the injury of dozens more, prompting concerns that the group has grown into a "state within a state" in the country that has been granting them humanitarian asylum for years.
The Albanian Ministry of the Interior announced that the raid, carried out by the police in the Ashraf 3 camp, which houses Iranian anti-revolution members who belong to MKO, "was carried out in accordance with the law and an order issued by the Anti-Terrorism Court."
The terrorist group's leadership reached the decision in response to the Albanian government's actions, backed by their specialized anti-terrorism court, to constrain the terrorist organization. This move is prompted by the uncovering of incriminating documents within the confines of Ashraf 3 headquarters, a security source told the Iranian Tasnim News Agency.
When the MKO was unsuccessful in securing the approval of the French government to accommodate a portion of their members, they initiated efforts to influence the Canadian government through their lobbying channels.
The preliminary phase will see all MKO members possessing Canadian residency or temporary passports being transferred from Albania to Canada.
The resolution, sources told the Iranian news agency, comes from the terror group drawing parallels between the situation in Albania and their previous circumstances in Iraq.
Iranian High Council for Human Rights secretary Kazem Gharibabadi revealed that Tehran officially filed a legal case against Mujahedin-e-Khalk and 107 individuals associated with it.
"In addition to the legal, judicial, and political pressures Iran has exerted on host countries of MKO members, these nations have independently come to recognize the terrorist nature of MKO. They are consequently imposing constraints on the group, and we view these restrictive measures against MKO terrorists positively," he underlined.
The terror group has since the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 orchestrated numerous acts of terrorism against Iranian civilians and government officials. The group's terrorist attacks have killed some 12,000 Iranians out of the nearly 17,000 who have been killed in terrorist attacks.
Read next: MKO, a decaying organization that no one wants to back: Report
Disdain is growing for the MKO all over the world. France refused months ago to grant permission to a large NCRI gathering set for Paris in July on the grounds of security, marking another hit dealt to the group that uses rallies to gain international support as it continues to prove to the West that it is more costly than beneficial for its backers, with the French having long been uncomfortable with the group's presence on the country's soil.
Many of the group's militants had resorted to France as a shelter after losing to the Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini whom they had supported against the Western-backed monarchy initially before turning against the revolution.
The MKO's militants moved from France to Iraq, where they cooperated with Saddam Hussein in the latter stages of the Iran-Iraq war, earning them the hatred of the Iranians.
France and Albania were lambasted by pro-MKO US officials, such as Senator Ted Cruz, who accused them of acting at the "ayatollah's behest"; however, the Texan lawmaker perhaps forgot that Albania and Iran have had their diplomatic ties severed since 2022 in the wake of a suspected wave of Iranian cyberattacks against Albania.
