US State Department underscores Iraq’s commitments with respect to PMOI/MEK

Friday, December 26, 2008
Voice of America , December 24-“Iran can make any kind of demand it wants with regard to the MEK members, but said U.S. officials “have no reason to doubt” Iraq’s commitment not to send them back to their home country.”
In a talk with reporters, State Department Deputy Spokesman Robert Wood said Iraqi officials also assured the United States there will be no effort to forcibly repatriate the rebels to Iran despite calls for that from Tehran.
“We’ve talked to the Iraqis about the Mujaheddine-e Khalq in Camp Ashraf, and they’ve committed to us that they would deal with these people according to the Iraqi constitution. They would not force anybody to return to Iran, and we believe that to be the case, that they don’t plan to do that. And we’ll go from there,” he said.
Spokesman Wood said Iran can make any kind of demand it wants with regard to the MEK members, but said U.S. officials “have no reason to doubt” Iraq’s commitment not to send them back to their home country.
He said it would be “premature” to discuss possible resettlement scenarios for the MEK members.
But he did say the Bush administration is reviewing the group’s terrorist designation, which he said has made resettlement of group members in the United States “problematic.”
A senior State Department official said if the MEK is taken off the terrorism list, the United States would “obviously” consider admitting some of it members.
The official said he could not predict how long the review might take but said a decision could pass to the incoming administration which takes office January 20 and that he expected consultations on the issue with the Obama transition team.