It was the first report that anyone had yet agreed to accept the Mojahedin members. However, there has been no confirmation of that report from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or any other source, raising doubts about the report.
Ambassador Majid ash-Shaikh said the 900 had been accepted by Azerbaijan and “some other countries.” He did not name any of the “other countries.”
Azerbaijan has not said anything about taking in Mojahedin members. The Islamic Republic is not likely to be happy if Azerbaijan does accept any of them.
The regime does not want to see the Mojahedin moved from one country that borders Iran to another country that borders Iran. Its objection to the Mojahedin in Iraq was that the group for years launched cross-border attacks on Iran from its bases in Iraq.
Baghdad has ordered the Mojahedin to leave by December 31. Some Iraqi officials have said the government is considering an extension since it is not realistic that all 3,400 could be processed and depart for other countries in that short time frame.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is trying to get the 27 EU member states to pledge to accept specific numbers of Mojahedin members as refugees, but no country has yet publicly agreed even to the concept of accepting any Mojahedin members.
At the US State Department, Ambassador Daniel Fried has been appointed to oversee US efforts to move the group’s members. The New York Times said he was first trying to get Iraq to extend the deadline for the group to leave Iraq.
Last Wednesday, two sub-committees of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee held a joint hearing on Camp Ashraf. One witness, retired US Army Col. Wesley Martin, was the US commander at Camp Ashraf several years ago. He defended the Mojahedin, denying the group was a cult, denying it held anyone at Camp Ashraf against their will, denying that they had ever supported Saddam Hussein. He attacked the US State Department for circulating such “rumors.”
Martin also predicted that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki would order another military attack on Camp Ashraf after December 15 and would not wait for the group’s members to be dispersed to other countries.
Ambassador Fried also testified, and disagreed sharply with Colonel Martin. Fried said that at its height, the Mojahedin had about 7,000 people at its bases inside Iraq. The Mojahedin, he said, “served as a private para- military group for Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war.
Thousands … were reported lost in combat with the Iranian military. Over the years, there has been credible reporting that the [Mojahedin] militarily supported Hussein’s violent suppression of groups in Iraq which opposed his regime.”
Fried also addressed the issue of the US recognition of members of the group at Camp Ashraf as “protected persons” under international law. The Mojahedin have argued that makes the United States permanently responsible for the safety of the group’s members.
Fried said that was not true. He said “protected person” is a legal term applying to people during an armed conflict or occupation. He said that once the US occupation formally ended in June 2004 with the establishment of an Iraqi government, “Camp Ashraf’s residents were no longer ‘protect persons’ as a legal matter.”
Fried appeared not to believe that Iraqi troops had entered Camp Ashraf twice in the last two years to attack Mojahedin members but rather that the Mojahedin had violently resisted the deployment of Iraqi troops inside the camp. Fried said, “The camp leadership must respect Iraqi sovereignty and refrain from acts of provocation.… [The Mojahedin] must act responsibly and not put any Ashraf residents, or ask any Ashraf residents to place themselves, in harm’s way.”
Fried also said that the future of the Camp Ashraf residents was on the agenda when Vice President Joseph Biden visited Baghdad last week.