PARIS, March 2 (UPI) -- The Iranian resistance movement called on U.S. President Barack Obama to provide security assurances to its members in Iraq's Diyala province.
The Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran said that Iran's supreme leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is trying to prevent the legitimate opposition to the ruling clerics in Iran by issuing stark rhetoric in response to a recent decision by the European Union to remove the People's Mujahedin of Iran from its terrorist list. The PMOI is in Camp Ashraf in Diyala province.
"The (PMOI) are the source of trouble and corruption," Khamenei said, according to the NCRI.
Meanwhile, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said in statements carried by the Xinhua news agency that "the Iraqi people want (the PMOI) out of Iraq."
The PMOI earned a reputation as a terrorist organization for links to violent attacks against the Iranian leadership in the 1980s. It said it abandoned its militancy in 2003, and the NCRI called for protection for Camp Ashraf residents.
"It also calls on the president of the United States, the United Nations secretary-general and the Security Council as well as all international human rights organizations to take immediate measures to guarantee Ashraf residents' protection and fundamental rights," an NCRI statement read.
PMOI members are considered protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
