US reaffirms Iran opposition group as terrorists

The U.S. State Department has reaffirmed its designation of an Iraq-based Iranian opposition group as a terrorist organization.

The presence in Iraq of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran has long been a source of friction between Washington and Baghdad, which is under pressure from neighboring Iran to deport the group.

The People's Mujahedeen had filed a petition for revocation of its designation as a terrorist organization. But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrote in a notice published Monday in the Federal Register that after reviewing the case she determined that the designation is still valid and appropriate.

A Paris-based spokesman for the group, Shahin Gobadi, said in an email response to Rice's statement that the organization did not expect Rice to revoke the designation but had filed the petition as a necessary step to going to court.

"We will take the case to the court and we will win," Gobadi said.

Iraq's Shiite-led government has long sought to get rid of the People's Mujahedeen, which fought alongside Saddam Hussein's forces during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. At the same time, many Iraqi Shiites fled to Shiite-dominated Iran and fought against Iraq.

Saddam allowed the People's Mujahedeen to establish a base north of Baghdad in 1986 to launch raids into Iran.

After U.S.-led forces overthrew Saddam in 2003, U.S. troops disarmed the People's Mujahedeen and confined its fighters to Camp Ashraf, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

The issue took on new urgency when Iraq assumed greater sovereignty Jan. 1 under a new security agreement that gave the Iraqis responsibility for Camp Ashraf.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, said on Jan. 1 that the People's Mujahedeen can "no longer operate in Iraq," although he pledged he would not force its members back to Iran.