Alwaght- Hussein Sheikholeslam, the advisor to the Iranian foreign minister, has lashed out at the Palestinian Authority's President Mahmoud Abbas for a recent meeting in Paris with Maryam Rajavi, the head of the anti-Iran MKO terrorist group, an acronym for Mojahedin-e Khalgh Organization.
The meeting of MKO takes place on an annual basis in the French capital, and assembles an array of guests including the staunch Western supporters of MKO which is blacklisted as terrorist group by the Islamic Republic.
During a press conference, the advisor said that the meeting between Abbas and the ringleader of MKO was no surprise to Tehran.
" That a Palestinian faction that compromises with the Zionists and that has yielded to Israel under US pressures... today meets with terrorist elements is no surprise," Iran's Press TV reported, quoting Sheikholeslam's words as referring to the Palestinian Fatah party which is headed by Mahmoud Abbas
The advisor continued: “Iran has already been in possession of evidence of Abbas' secret collaborations with the US.
Press TV reported, quoting Sheikholeslam, the relations between Mahmoud Abbas and the terrorist group and the Israelis have been covert and have only become publicized today.
The EU Council took off name of MKO from its terror blacklist in 2009 following strains from the US.
Iran has summoned the French ambassador to protest Paris allowing such a meeting on its soil.
Furthermore, the Secretary of Iran's Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei has criticized Abbas for the meeting with a "failed element".
In an Instagram post Rezaei slammed Mahmoud Abbas as the most incompetent member of Fatah party.
Iran is a staunch ally and supporter of the Palestine.
Why MKO is a terrorist group?
Since foundation of the Islamic Republic of Iran following the Islamic Revolution of 1979, MKO held hostile views on Iran, and was firmly supported by Western sides before recently it appeared that it has found new ally and founder: Saudi Arabia, a regional rival of Iran which uses any instruments to beat Tehran.
Former Saudi spy chief Turki al-Faisal was also a guest and speaker at Paris meeting.
MKO carried out a slew of terrorist acts inside Iran in the wake the 1979 Iranian Revolution that overthrow Shah of Iran.
For example, it blew up the Iranian prime minister's office in 1980, killing the second post-revolution Iranian President Muhammad-Ali Rajai and the Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar.
The group later took responsibility for the blast.
A set of other explosions rocked the capital Tehran and other cities of Iran, the blames of which were laid on MKO.
MKO's activities were not confined to inside Iran as the terrorist group sided with the former dictator of Iraq Saddam Hussein, who invaded Iran in September 1980.
MKO contributed to Saddam's forces both through gathering intelligence from inside Iran and delivering it to the Iraqi command centers, and also through exploding further bombs in the Iranian cities.
The terrorist group also launched a major attack in 1988, entering the Iranian territory from west of the country with some 7, 000 forces and a full collection of heavy military equipment. But the Iranian armed forces staged a counterattack, totally foiling the hostile move by MKO.
MKO was also involved in a bloody repression of Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq in 1991, as well as the massacre of the Kurds of Iraq.
More than 17,000 Iranians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed at the hands of the MKO in an array of terrorist acts including bombings in public places and targeted killings, according to Tasnim news agency.
