Rouhani Chides Macron Over MKO Base in France

Date: 03 January 2018 - 22:16

News ID: ۴۸۴۶۲

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani phoned his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday to demand action against a "terrorist" group which has been fomenting recent riots.
"We criticize the fact that a terrorist group has a base in France and acts against the Iranian people," Rouhani told Macron.
He was referring to an anti-Iran group based in Paris, called the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) which is the most hated terrorist group by Iranians because of its dark history of assassinations and bombings, and for siding with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in his eight-year war against Iran in the 1980s.
General Rassul Sanairad, a political deputy to the head of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), said Tuesday the MKO had been instructed by the Saudi rulers and some European states to "create insecurity" in Iran, Tasnim news agency reported.
"We expect the French government to abide by its legal responsibility towards this terrorist group along the lines of battling terrorism and violence,” Rouhani reportedly told Macron during the phone conversation.
President Rouhani stressed to his French counterpart that no country would neglect public security and promotion of violence is separate from a nation’s legitimate right to express its demands and criticism.
During the talks, Macron reportedly brought up "the number of victims from the demonstrations” and two presidents also decided to postpone a visit by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian to Tehran. It was s scheduled for this week.