TEHRAN – Iran on Wednesday condemned Britain’s decision to lift a ban on the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) and called it a ‘disgraceful’ act.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said the MKO is hated throughout the world for carrying out several terrorist operations in Iran and Iraq.
Hosseini said MKO is a “united” terror group which has been cunningly trying to present a “new face” of itself since the U.S invasion of Iraq and it has “never ruled out the use of arms and violence”.
British lawmakers decided to lift a ban on the MKO on Monday, following a court decision last month that ruled the government had to remove it from a terrorist blacklist.
The order to remove the MKO, which was originally banned in 2001, from Britain’s list of proscribed groups will go into effect later this week.
The MKO, formed in the 1960s, is on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze, and has been designated by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said the British government is isolating itself by taking a path different from the international community. He added Britain is seeking short-term interests by adopting biased polices toward terrorist groups.
The spokesman added Iran sees this move which took place at a time that Britain was engaged in political dealings with other terrorist groups as a new policy by London to “play the terrorist card to pressure regional states.”
Hosseini expressed hope that European organizations would not be influenced by the political and illogical decision of Britain’s Court of Appeal, and persist on their pledges to confront terrorism.
MKO launched a campaign of assassinations and bombings in Iran immediately after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The group moved to Iraq in the early 1980s and it fought Iran from there until the United States invaded in 2003.
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein used the group as force to suppress opponents at home