U.S. bound to protect PMOI, official says

United Press International
July 16, 2008

WASHINGTON, July 16 (UPI) -- The United States has a duty under international law to protect the People's Mujahedin of Iran in its Iraqi holdout in Ashraf, a former U.S. official said.

Raymond Tanter, president of the Iran Policy Committee, writes in a column featured with the National Council of Resistance of Iran that the anti-Iranian People's Mujahedin of Iran is protected under the Geneva Conventions, but its future in Iraq is in doubt.

Tanter, who served as a national security staffer under U.S. President Ronald Reagan, writes that the U.S. military provides the group protection in its eastern Iraqi stronghold, but with negotiations ongoing regarding the long-term security arrangement between the two countries, the transfer of security responsibility to Iraqi forces and the influence of Iran over the Iraqi government, the group faces reprisal should U.S. forces withdraw their protection.

"Rather than protect the Iranian oppositionists, Iraqi security forces may choose to assassinate, slaughter or kidnap them for transfer to Iran, where public hangings await them," he writes.

Washington, Tanter says, has a moral obligation to continue its protection of the group as long as there is a U.S. military presence in Iraq.

As the primary opposition group in Iraq opposing the Iranian regime, it would be "politically prudent" for the United States to continue its positive relations with the group to contain the influence of Tehran, he says.