[caption id="attachment_30951" align="alignright" width="180"] File photo shows members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).[/caption]
A political analyst says the United States seeks to utilize the members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) as a tool against Iran,Press TVreports.
Zayd al-Isa, a London-based Middle East expert, told Press TV on Monday that Washington has been waging a campaign to prevent the Iraqi government from relocating MKO members despite Baghdads attempts to move ahead with the relocation process.
The US wants to utilize them as a tool to undermine the Islamic Republic of Iran and also the Saudis want to utilize them as a means to destabilize, discredit and derail the political process with the ultimate goal of dismantling the newly democratic Iraq, Isa stated.
In December 2011, the United Nations and Iraq agreed to relocate some 3,000 MKO terrorists from Camp New Iraq, formerly known as Camp Ashraf, in Diyala Province, to Camp Hurriya - a former US military base near Baghdad International Airport.
The UN seeks to relocate the MKO terrorits to third countries as part of its agreement with the Iraqi government to facilitate the groups complete exit from Iraq.
There is interest in keeping them on the Iraqi soil by the US and by its staunchest ally in the region, which is Saudi Arabia, the political analyst said.
The MKO fled to Iraq in 1986, where it received the support of Iraqs executed dictator Saddam Hussein and set up Camp Ashraf near the Iranian border.
The MKO is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community and is responsible for numerous acts of terror and violence against Iranian civilians and officials back in the 1980s and against Iraqi civilians mostly in the 1990s.
Baghdad considers the MKO base and its residents a threat to its national security, but Iraq has been pressured to extend the existence of the camp on its soil due to US-led efforts.