NICOSIA - Iran's armed opposition, the People's Mujahedeen, hit back Saturday at US State Department allegations that Iraq had used tens of millions of dollars earned from smuggling oil to build a base for the group.

In a statement, the Mujahedeen said that its "bases and centers have all been built from their own funds, raised from contributions by the people of Iran.

"A plethora of documents backing this assertion is available for anyone interested and can be published."

The State Department Friday released a satellite photograph showing military installations located in the city of Faluja, west of Baghdad, that US officials say can accommodate between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters.

The Mujahedeen retorted Saturday, "There is nothing secret or hidden about the camps and centers of... the Iranian Resistance in the Iran-Iraq border region, Baghdad and west of Baghdad."

These bases had come under attack 88 times by "the religious, terrorist dictatorship ruling Iran" since 1993, it said.

They had also been visited by UN weapons inspectors in Iraq, who acknowledged they were not under Iraqi control, the statement added.

Camp Bagherzadeh, the site featured in the State Department photograph, was nothing new, it said, having been inspected by UNSCOM in September 1997 and visited by foreign journalists on dozens of occasions.

The Mujahedeen statement noted that the New York Times quoted a senior US official as saying "this is a propaganda campaign" being used against any easing of the sanctions.
 

Attempt to Appease Mullahs' Regime, Reuters, March 24

WASHINGTON - … The allegations have the added advantage of showing to the Iranian government the extent of U.S. hostility toward the Mujahideen, which the United States calls a terrorist group.

The Mujahideen, which would like to fight a conventional war, says the "terrorist" designation was always just an attempt to appease the Iranian government.

But the Mujahideen, which raises money from wealthy members of the Iranian diaspora, said: "The Mujahideen has not received even one dollar from any government, including Iraq."

"The People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran declares its readiness to welcome visits by U.N. and Security Council officials to any or all of its bases, offices and centers throughout Iraq," the statement added.
 

Rebuffing US Offer of Normalization, Mullahs' Supreme Leader Calls Gesture Deceitful, Associated Press, March 25

TEHRAN - Iran's supreme leader slammed a U.S. gesture aimed at improving ties as "deceitful," saying Saturday that Iranians could never forget American injustices.

State-run radio reported the comments by Ali Khamenei, the first reaction from Iran's top leader to a March 17 speech in which U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced the lifting of some sanctions against Iran.

"The Iranian nation and its authorities consider the United States to be their enemy because America's past behavior is full of acts of hostility and treason," Khamenei said.

[He added that the issue between the U.S. and the regime was not the removal of the "wall of mistrust."]

"The Americans are presuming that such acknowledgments, which did not even include an apology, will cause the Iranian nation to forget America's acts of treason, hostilities and injustices," he was quoted as saying.

"The remarks by the U.S. secretary are deceitful. These late confessions are of no use to the Iranian people," the radio quoted Khamenei as saying.

"America can't do a damn thing," Khamenei said, repeating a once popular slogan of Khomeini.
 

Second Pilotless Plane of Mullahs' Regime Shot Down Over Iraq, Reuters, March 25

BAGHDAD - Iraq said on Saturday that its air defenses had shot down an Iranian pilotless plane in southern Iraq.

The Iraqi News Agency INA said the plane was shot down near the Iraqi town of al- Azair in Meisan province near the border with Iran after it violated Iraqi air space.

Iraq said last week it shot down an Iranian drone on March 13 near the border with Iran.

[The reconnaissance drone… belonged to the mullahs' Revolutionary Guards. Three drones flew over the border areas on Friday in Basra and Imara and entered Iraqi airspace for aerial photography of National Liberation Army's camps Habib and Homayoun. One of the drones was shot down.

[The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran draws the attention of the Secretary General and the Security Council of the United Nations to the repeated violation of UNSC Resolution 598, particularly in the "no-fly zone". Binding decisions must be taken against the mullahs' terrorist regime.]

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