TEHRAN -- Iran’s Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the United States for meeting the ringleader of the anti-Iran terrorist cult of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), and for reiterating its alliance with terrorists and murderers of thousands of Iranians.

“The American regime’s alliance with the terrorists and killers of more than 17,000 Iranian citizens became clearer,” ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani wrote in a tweet.

Kanaani said, “The recent move of some politically-bankrupt American figures to try to ‘whitewash terrorism’ and reprehensibly sanctify the terrorist MKO ringleader and criminal mercenary of [former Iraqi dictator] Saddam, have further shown the bogus image of American human rights.”

On Saturday, Washington hosted, what American officials have defined as, a so-called “gathering of Iranian opposition groups.” The summit was joined by the MKO’s infamous ringleader Maryam Rajavi as well as several former American officials, including former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, all of whom advocated “regime change” in Iran and glorified the foreign-backed riots that have been taking place across Iran over the past weeks.

The U.S. and its allies have been voicing outright support for the rioters, who have been trying to hijack protests that emerged following the death of a young Iranian woman.

The MKO has a dark history of assassinations and bombings against the Iranian government and nation. It notoriously sided with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during Iraq’s 1980-88 war against the Islamic Republic.

Western countries the U.S., have, however, delisted the MKO as terrorist group.

The notorious terrorist group throws lavish conferences every year in Paris, with certain American, Western, and Saudi officials as its guests of honor. They include Pompeo, former U.S. national security advisor John Bolton, former U.S. president Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, and former Saudi Arabian spy chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal.

Kanaani said, “The American regime’s recourse to bankrupts and criminals in order to apply more pressure on the Iranian government and people, bespeaks its empty-handedness.”

“However, this does not diminish the fact that the U.S. is legally accountable for its violation of Iranian people’s rights and its support for a known terrorist organization.”