Reuters, June 24 (Excerpts) – A banned Iranian Opposition group urged the European Union on Tuesday to follow Britain in dropping it from a list of outlawed terrorist organisations.

British parliament approved on Monday an order to remove the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) from Britain’s own sanctions list in line with an earlier High Court ruling that the ban was wrong.

Dowlat Nourozi of the PMOI’s political arm said Britain had been behind the EU blacklisting of the group in the first place and the change of policy meant its inclusion on an EU list of groups facing asset freezes no longer made sense.

“It is time for them (the EU) to take strong and immediate action to take the PMOI off the list,” Nourozi told a news conference in Brussels.

The call comes at a sensitive time for diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear programme, which major powers in the U.N. Security suspect is a cover for efforts to acquire an atom bomb. Iran denies this.

EU ministers had been due to decide on the PMOI’s status last week but diplomats said the move was postponed on June 12 pending the British parliament decision.