European Parliament: Resolution on Iran and Camp Ashraf

Thursday, September 4, 2008

"Whereas there are grounds for concern that members and associates of the Iranian opposition who are regrouped and protected in Camp Ashraf in Northern Iraq by US-led multinational forces under Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention may be under threat of being expelled or forcibly returned to Iran, where they could face heavy persecution and possibly even the death penalty;

(European Parliament) Calls on the Iraqi and US authorities not to forcibly return to Iran any Iranian opposition members, refugees and asylum seekers who would be at serious risk of persecution and, in particular, to work together with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and others to find a satisfactory long-term solution to the situation of those currently in Camp Ashraf.

Protest at UN calls for protection of Iranian exiles in Iraq

EFE (Spain's News Agency), Tuesday October 14, 2008 (Translated from Spanish)

United Nations, Oct 14 (EFE) - A group of Iranians residing in the United States have held a sit-in for more than a month across from UN headquarters, seeking protection for thousands of their exiled compatriots in the Iraqi city of Ashraf, their leaders told EFE today.

The demonstrators have gathered every day for a month, placing banners on the sidewalk in front of the building of the secretariat of the UN in New York, to ask the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to intervene.

The exiles fear that their compatriots belonging to the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI) living in a camp at Ashraf may be deported to Iran when the U.S. hands over their security to the Government of Iraq in Baghdad.

"If they are returned, it will be a massacre," said Nasser Rashidi, director of the National Coalition of Advocates of Democracy, an organization of Iranian exiles. Rashidi said that after the occupation of Iraq, the PMOI fighters gave up their arms and the U.S. military granted them protection under the Geneva Convention.

"The U.S. should provide protection to our camp at Ashraf as long as it maintains a presence in Iraq," he said...

Dissidents Protest at UN: We Are In Danger In Iraq

ANSA (Italian News Agency), Wednesday, October 15, 2008

NEW YORK, 15 OCT - The life of about four thousand Iranian dissidents who are residing in Iraq is in danger, according to the People's Mujaeddin Organization of Iran, which has been protesting everyday for more than a month, in front of the United Nations Headquarters

"We are the relatives of the dissidents that live under protection of the American forces in Camp Ashraf, 60 kilometers from Baghdad, according to Nasser Rashidi, one of the protest organizers.

"We are worried about the infiltrations of the Iranian regime in the government of the Iraq and we demand that the United States continue to monitor the base."

Rashidi also made an appeal to UN High Commissioner for Refugees to support the four thousand dissidents because they are in danger. "They know their country and they know how to bring about change in Iran."

U.S. official has new evidence of Iranian meddling in Iraq CNN, Tuesday, 14 October 2008 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States has new intelligence indicating Iran is reorganizing in an effort to assert its influence inside Iraq and may be behind several recent attacks, according to a senior U.S. official who spoke with CNN Monday.

The information underscores a view by Gen. David Petraeus, who assumes command of U.S. Central Command later this month, and Gen. Raymond Odierno that progress in Iraq remains fragile and that it is too soon for a major additional U.S. troop drawdown.

The senior official, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the intelligence, said the U.S. military had recently arrested an Iraqi general who says he was paid by Iran to derail a pending agreement that would allow U.S. troops to remain in Iraq after the end of the year.

The general was arrested a few weeks ago at the Iranian border carrying large sums of cash, according to the source. The man has known ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the U.S. official said.