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An interview with UK's ambassador to Tehran
Baztab: currently, your country suffers from terrorism
but we were informed in recent days that the terrorist Mojahedin-e khalq
organization (MKO) is conducting activities in Britain. British Foreign
Secretary, Mr. Straw, has repeatedly condemned the MKO but the House of
Lords has accepted to discuss the issue of Camp Ashraf. What's your opinion
about this kind of contradictory behavior?
Richard Dalton: There's no contradiction in this regard. They can have no
operations in Britain. Iranian and British security officials are
cooperating on this so that they prevent the MKO from any kind of terrorist
activities. Any meeting on the issue in the House of Lords, if held, has
been on the part of independent representatives and according to their
personal interests since legislation is open for them to act freely on all
issues. Parliament has jurisdiction over how to act on legislation.
Baztab: Documents indicate that Mr. Straw had proposed a plan to the House
of Commons in which the MKO was considered a terrorist group. Now, when
they're acting freely, what do you mean by "operation"? When Mr.
Soleimanpour was on trial two years ago, we saw them outside the court and
even the magistrate didn't release Soleimanpour on $750,000 bail due to fear
for his life. He said that people outside the court may want to kill him and
that releasing him endangers his life. Isn't this kind of act by MKO an
"operation"?
Richard Dalton: this is your idea. You call it an "operation" but I disagree
with it. National Council of Resistance, which is called by Iran, us and
other European countries a terrorist organization, can't have a system for
conduction terrorist operations; so, according to British laws, they can
only act as a "pressure group" or "lobbyist".
About Camp Ashraf, I should say that before the fall of Saddam Hussein, MKO
was a military group with military equipments; they helped Saddam but after
the war, they were disarmed. Now, they're under surveillance in a Camp,
without performing any operations. Many of MKO members have returned to Iran
by the assistance of the US, UN and Iran. Of course, our efforts are
concentrated on the return of many more MKO members. We treat them in
Britain and Iraq in a same way, so that they can not have any military
operations. Policy is clear.
Baztab: Mr. Ambassador, is it right for us to support groups like "Al-Qaeda"
and others here in Iran since London has become the headquarters for Iranian
opposition?
Richard Dalton: As I mentioned earlier, we have restricted the MKO and we
have called them terrorist and there's no terrorist activity against Iran
and other countries from British soil.
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