Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said on Saturday that the U.S. decision to shut down the offices of the terrorist National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) is a positive step, in line with its international responsibilities, though insufficient.

The United States on Friday shut down the NCRI offices after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell announced that the Mojahedeen-e Khalq (MKO) -– designated a terrorist group by the U.S., the European Union, and Iran -- was to be banned under all its aliases. The order also freezes the group's U.S. assets and bars U.S. citizens from making contributions to it.

After committing many terrorist acts in Iran, most MKO members fled to Iraq in 1986, where they made an alliance with Saddam Hussein and set up bases.

As a matter of fact the U.S. ban of the MKO and its political wing does not go far enough.

In order to prove that the U.S. is not practicing a double standard on the issue of terrorism, Washington must show sincerity and persistence in its actions against the group. Even if the terrorist group changes its name, the U.S. must act against the move within the framework of the UN Security Council resolutions on terrorism.

It is obvious that all countries, including the U.S., must confront terrorism decisively in all its forms in order to root out the scourge. Since the MKO is on the U.S. list of terrorist groups, the U.S. should have shut it down sooner. The fact that the ringleaders of the terrorist MKO are residing in U.S.-occupied Iraq only adds to the U.S. responsibility. However, MKO troops were disarmed by U.S. forces following the fall of Baghdad in April and apparently barred from carrying out military operations.

Political analysts believe that the decision was an attempt to trick the world, and especially Iran, into thinking that the U.S. does not differentiate between so-called "good" terrorist groups (meaning groups whose activities are in the interests of the U.S.) and "bad" ones. But the past two decades of U.S. support for the MKO, even after 1997 when the U.S. labeled it a terrorist group, reveals the deception.

Also, there are well publicized internal disputes inside the U.S. government over what to do about the MKO. Political analysts believe that because of the differences between the White House, the Defense Department, Congress, and the State Department, there is no guarantee that these restrictions are final and not just a formality.

Nevertheless, after the September 11 incidents, the selective approach of the U.S. toward the issue of terrorism has increased skepticism around the world about U.S intentions. It should be noted that the U.S. formally declared its attack on Afghanistan was primarily to fight and uproot terrorism, but the trend of developments and the outcome of the war have proven the opposite. The U.S. still has not taken appropriate measures to end terrorism in that country.

Also, Washington officials deceived the international community in order to gain support for the recent Iraq war. In the aftermath of the war, it has been proven that the threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was not on the top of the U.S. agenda. Rather, the U.S sought to occupy Iraq, by hook or by crook. It soon became clear that Washington had other plots for the region.

The U.S. decision to close the offices of the MKO -- if not purely a public relations maneuver – is at most a tactical move.