Iran says scores of Iraq-based rebels defected

Iran says scores of Iraq-based rebels defected
Reuters
April 7, 2003

TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) - Scores of Iraq-based Iranian rebels have defected and returned to Iran over recent months, taking advantage of an amnesty offered by Tehran, a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying Monday.

Iran has said members of the People's Mujahideen, listed as a "terrorist organization" by the United States and the European Union, can return if they voice regret for their actions against the Islamic Republic.

"Around 100 defected members of the organization have returned to Iran in the past two or three months and were handed over to their families," Kayhan newspaper quoted Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi as saying.

The Mujahideen, which seeks to install a secular government to replace Iran's clerical leaders, has close ties to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's government and its bases in Iraq are considered enemy targets by U.S.-led forces seeking to topple Saddam.

"The Americans so far have not made any successful attack on their bases ... but Iranian border forces have already received a flood of militants," Yunesi said.

He added that "for certain reasons" Iran had no intention of attacking Mujahideen bases inside Iraq, as it has done in the past in retaliation for cross border attacks and bombings carried in Iran.

While publicly opposed to the U.S.-led attack on Iraq, Iran has vowed to stay out of the conflict.

The Mujahideen took part in the 1979 Islamic revolution against the U.S.-backed Shah but later broke from the ruling clerical establishment.

Iraq's support for the Mujahideen and Iran's backing for Iraqi Shi'ite dissidents have been a main obstacle to efforts by the two neighbors to normalize ties after the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.