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US military denies allowing Iran rebels to continue operations from Iraq

Jordan Times, Saturday, September 13, 2003

BAGHDAD (AFP) — The US military Thursday roundly denied reports that it was allowing the Iranian armed opposition People's Mujahedeen to mount attacks from Iraq four months after Washington gave orders for its fighters to be disarmed and confined to camp. Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the coalition ground forces commander in Iraq, insisted that the group, also known by its Persian name Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), had been deprived of its weapons and was being guarded by more than 5,000 coalition troops.

"The MEK has been separated from its combat equipment," Sanchez told a Baghdad news conference. "The MEK has not been able to conduct any operations against the Iran-Iraq border."

The general acknowledged that initially not all of the arms had been removed from the Ashraf camp northeast of Baghdad, where about 3,800 People's Mujahedeen militiamen are being held and screened, but stressed that all of them had been put beyond use.

"Some of their weaponry was at the same camp that they were at Ashraf," he said. "That equipment had been disabled but it was in the same camp. It has now been moved."

The Washington Post reported Thursday that Secretary of State Colin Powell had written to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the past week to complain that the People's Mujahedeen were being still given wide freedom to operate despite being designated by Washington as a terrorist group. The paper said that, according to administration officials, the Pentagon had allowed the group to retain its weapons, come and go as it pleased and use camp facilities to broadcast propaganda into Iran.

"It's unbelievable," the daily quoted an unnamed State Department official as saying. "It's a pretty cushy arrangement for a terrorist group."

But Sanchez insisted that there was no truth to the suggestion that the rebels were being given broad leeway amid staunch opposition from the Pentagon to calls from some in the State Department for a rapprochement with Iran.

"I can guarantee you that they are not carrying out operations," he insisted.

Asked why there were only 3,800 People's Mujahedeen fighters in coalition custody, a fraction of the group's prewar strength, he replied: "You tell me."

http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2003%20News%20archives/September/13%20n/US%20military%20denies%20allowing%20Iran%20rebels%20to%20continue%20operations%20from%20Iraq.htm

14 Sep 2003 07:08:59 GMT
Iran says cooperation with IAEA open to debate

TEHRAN, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Sunday Tehran was debating whether to continue cooperation with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog which last week gave Iran seven weeks to prove it had no secret atomic weapons programme.

Iran insists it has no nuclear arms ambitions and accuses Washington of seeking a pretext to invade the Islamic Republic as it had its neighbours Afghanistan and Iraq.

"The nature of our cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is under consideration," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference.

"The relevant authorities are discussing it and our decision will be made public in future. We haven't made a concrete decision on how to continue cooperation with the IAEA," he said.

The IAEA has accused Tehran of failing to come clean about its nuclear programme. Iran says its nuclear facilities are solely geared to generating electricity.

A resolution passed by the IAEA's governing board on Friday called on Iran to clear up lingering doubts by October 31 and suspend all uranium enrichment activities for the time being.

The resolution implied that should the IAEA still have concerns about Iran's nuclear activities in November, it could declare Tehran in breach of international obligations and report it to the U.N. Security Council for possible economic sanctions.

In an interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel Iran's ambassador to the IAEA Ali Akbar Salehi warned that Tehran could follow North Korea's lead by pulling out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Asked on Monday if Iran would pull out of the NPT, Asefi reiterated that cooperation with the IAEA was under review.

Diplomats in Tehran said Iran's decision-making process was complicated by divisions in the ruling establishment.

While the reformist government led by President Mohammad Khatami has been pushing for greater cooperation with the IAEA, powerful hardliners close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have argued the opposite.

"The IAEA board's tough statement may have given hardliners greater ammunition to argue that cooperation with the IAEA merely invites greater pressure on the country," one said.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L14518596.htm