A senior organization official to Asharq Al-Awsat: Our main objective is to provide main necessities for our people in Iraq
Al Arabiya, 30 Sep 2012 – One official in the NCRI Foreign Affairs Commission told Asharq Al-Awsat this development “will provide widespread movement for the organization,” and “strengthen its activities in the US and wherever Iranian immigrants are, and also inside Iran.”
According to Mousa Afshar interviewing with Asharq al-Awsat daily, the PMOI seeks to reorganize its ranks inside Iran, which has been under prosecution and repression for years by Iranian officials, and to ride on the new wave of “Beginning the Iran Spring”. In 2009, members of this organization were among the first to take to the streets and many of them have been executed.
Mousa Afshara described the “victory” that the PMOI achieved as, on one hand, the “result of a judicial campaign” in the US because a high court provided a period of four months to decide – to which the State Department abided by this ruling. And on the other hand, this organization, opposing the regime ruling Iran from the very first day of its foundation, considers its removal from the US list being based on political reasons following tensions in relations between the West and Iran over the Iran’s nuclear dossier and Tehran supporting the Syrian regime.
According to Afshar, in 1997 the West – the US and Europe – sought to send a message of closeness to Iran’s “liberal” president Mohammad Khatami – who had conditioned for the West the designation of the PMOI as a terrorist organization – and today the West, by removing the PMOI from the US list, is sending a reverse message.
According to the PMOI this new development will give this organization “new dynamism”, strengthen its activities and provide support for enhanced actions.
According to the mentioned official, their direct goal that they are placing their efforts for is “providing minimum necessities for our brothers in Camp Liberty (in Iraq) numbering at over 3,300; such as freedom of movement and work, and providing communication with the outside world, and coming up with countries that will accept  them.”
It is worth noting that 200 Iranians, members of this organization, still remain in Camp Ashraf in Diyala Province near Iran’s borders, to protect their assets and make preparations for their sale in cooperation with the United Nations.
The organization gained the West’s change in position for its role in exposing details of Iran’s nuclear program and providing pictures and information from inside the country, allowing this case to be sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency and then the UN Security Council.
Victory Celebration
The organization celebrated this new “victory” in its headquarters in Auver-sur-Oise, located north of Paris. NCRI President Maryam Rajavi described the US decision as “just, brave and difficult”.
“We hope to better introduce ourselves and our goals to international community and the American people,” this organization said in its statement.
The US decision was “difficult and required political courage”, the organization said, and expressed its hopes to this US decision will provide support in facilitating efforts to find host countries to accept members of this organization willing to depart Iraq.
Mousa Afshar said the terrorist label “had limited Iranian resistance activities in the US and Europe.” Therefore, its removal “will have many results, and facilitate this organization’s movements and activities,” he added.
The PMOI rejected the velayat-e faqih, established by Khomeini in Iran, and call for returning sovereignty to the people through free and transparent elections, based on what their documents and political advertisements stress.
The US decision was expected, because this organization had set violence aside long ago and in a widespread manner cooperated with US intelligence organizations to provide information on events inside Iran.
However, the US State Department stressed in its statement it will never forgive or forget its past terrorist measures, including their involvement in the murder of American citizens in Iran in the 1970s and attacks on US soil in 1992.
Washington had linked its decision on the evacuation of Camp Ashraf and transfer to Camp Liberty, a former US military base near the Iraqi capital.
During the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, the PMOI transferred to Iraq under the support of Saddam Hussein’s regime, aimed at carrying out armed operations against Iran.