Iran Opposes U.S. Accord With Fighters Based in Iraq

Iran Opposes U.S. Accord With Fighters Based in Iraq
By NAZILA FATHI

New York Times
May 2, 2003

Iran's Foreign Ministry today criticized the American cease-fire agreement with an Iranian guerrilla group based in Iraq, accusing the United States of hypocrisy in claiming to fight terrorism and in its efforts to reshape Iraq.

The ministry's spokesman, Hamidrez Assefi, said the truce with the group, Mujahedeen Khalq, or the People's Mujahedeen, in Iraq was evidence of American ''weakness'' and ''lies in combating terrorism.'' He rejected the accusations by the United States that Iran was meddling in Iraq's reconstruction, saying, ''Occupying Iraq is an obvious sign of interfering into affairs of a country, and an occupier cannot accuse others.''

His remarks came a day after Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, denounced the arrangement with the guerrilla group, saying the United States had proven that ''bad terrorists are only those who are not America's servants.''

United States military officials signed the cease-fire agreement with the Mujahedeen Khalq on April 15 and announced it on Wednesday. The truce allows the group, which is listed by Europe and the United States as a terrorist organization, to keep its weapons in return for not committing hostile acts against American forces.

The State Department's counterterrorism coordinator, Cofer Black, said on Wednesday that the cease-fire was a tactical decision by military commanders and that the issue would be addressed in the coming days and weeks.

From its bases in Iraq, the Mujahedeen Khalq has carried out assassination attacks against the Iranian government, and it has also been accused of killing several members of the American military as well as civilians working on defense projects in Iran before the 1979 revolution. Iran had hoped that the group would lose its foothold in Iraq after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's government and had demanded that its members be handed over to Iran.

Iran has expressed concerns over American plans in the region, and it will be the host for a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Countries on May 28 to discuss Mr. Hussein's fall and the presence of United States forces in Iraq, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported today.

For its part, the United States has accused Iran of trying to interfere with efforts to form a new government in Iraq and of sending agents to promote a Shiite theocracy there.

Iran has long allowed an Iraqi Shiite group, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, to operate on its soil. The group's leader, Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim, has in the past called for an Iranian-style Islamic revolution in Iraq, but has recently said he would support a democratic parliamentary system in the country. He said he planned to leave Iran for the the city of Basra in southern Iraq, and would then go to the Shiite holy city of Najaf.

Iran's hard-line Revolutionary Guards have trained the Supreme Council's military wing, which is known as the Badr Brigade. The United States has said that the Badr fighters have crossed into Iraq and are promoting efforts to install Shiite rule.

Early this month, another Iraqi exile in Iran, Kadhem al-Husseni al-Haeri, issued a religious edict urging Iraqi Shiites ''to seize the first possible opportunity to fill the power vacuum in the administration in Iraq.''

In Tehran today, Mr. Assefi, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, rejected American claims that Iran was behind efforts to install Shiite clerics in office. ''The Islamic Republic, as a country neighboring Iraq, respects the rights of Iraqi people in deciding their future and believes a democratic government, elected by the free will of people, can secure stability in Iraq and in the region,'' he said.

He also took exception with the United States' declaration this week that Iran was the world's ''most active sponsor of terrorism.'' He called the accusations baseless, and he also rejected recent American accusations that Iran was developing a nuclear weapons program, repeating the Iranian government's assertion that its nuclear program was fully accountable and was for energy purposes only.