Italian Parliament News Agency:
Italian MPs Elizabetta Zamparutti (Radical Party) and Carlo Ciccioli (People’s Freedom Party), co-chairs of the Italian Parliamentary Iran Freedom Committee issued a statement warning on the imminent closure of Camp Ashraf, home to 3500 individuals associated with the Iranian Resistance movement “People’s Mojahedin Organization” by Iraq under pressures enforced by the Iranian regime.
“The Iranian regime has been announcing its demand to have the camp closed and now it has found an ally in the Nouri Maliki government,” these two MPs added. “The latest issue took place on October 31st, when Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi went to Baghdad participating in a joint conference with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari where he also reiterated his commitment to close the camp at the end of 2011.”
“Due to the siege it has implemented on the camp, Iraq is preventing the entrance of international organizations to Ashraf following the Iraqi forces’ brutal armed attack on April 8th that resulted in 34 residents being murdered and hundreds more wounded,” these two MPs continued. “Iraq is especially stonewalling the work of the UNHCR to pursue the residents’ individual refugee petitions.”
“If the US forces’ withdrawal planned for the end of the year lacks the international community’s sodality to pursue a responsibility towards Ashraf residents, then a massacre has been announced,” Zamparutti and Ciccioli warned.