BRUSSELS (Agencies)
The British government lost a bid to keep an Iranian opposition group on its list of proscribed terrorist organizations, as leaders of the European Union reiterated their support for possible additional U.N. sanctions against Iran if it fails to give up nuclear enrichment work.
The Proscribed Organizations Appeal Commission (POAC) rejected an application by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith against its November 30 ruling that the People's Mojahadeen Organization of Iran (PMOI) should no longer be blacklisted.
Home Office minister Tony McNulty said Friday he was disappointed at the decision and would now seek to take the case to the Court of Appeal.
"The government adopted a cautious approach in relation to the de-proscription of the People's Mojahadeen Organization of Iran," he said in a statement.
"I remain convinced that where terrorism is concerned, the rights of the law abiding majority and the overriding need to protect the public, both in the UK and abroad, must lead us to take such a cautious approach.”
The PMOI was the armed wing of the France-based National Council of Resistance of Iran but renounced violence in June 2001.
Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said in a statement the tribunal's ruling was "another affirmation that the terrorist label against the PMOI was 'perverse'".
The group has last week accused Tehran of pursuing efforts to develop nuclear weapons, dismissing as incomplete a U.S. intelligence report that Iran's nuclear arms program was frozen in 2003. |
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Tougher measures In Brussels, meanwhile, a joint statement from leaders of the 27 EU states meeting called on Iran to provide "full, clear and credible answers" to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to resolve questions about its nuclear activity.
They added that the council of member states "reiterates its full support to the work in the U.N. Security Council to adopt further measures" and said a decision would be taken at the next meeting of EU foreign ministers due on Jan. 28, in light of upcoming decisions in the U.N. Security Council.
Sanctions have been imposed because Iran has failed to heed a U.N. demand that it suspend uranium enrichment, which the West believes Tehran is trying to master so it can build bombs. Iran insists it wants only fuel for power plants.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told a news briefing the
European Union had received "no assurances about uranium enrichment and the purpose of it in Iran".
"There is no evidence of a civil nuclear program and therefore the Iranian enrichment that has been part of the work of Iran is a problem for the international community," he said.
Iran said on Thursday its latest round of talks with the
IAEA to resolve outstanding issues about its disputed atomic work were a positive step, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported. |
