Mujahedeen-e-khalq: US to review blacklist in six months

It was removed from a list of 50 banned militant groups compiled by the European Union in January 2009.

WASHINGTON: Washington will decide within six months whether to remove the banned Iranian opposition People’s Mujahedeen from a terrorism blacklist, a US State Department official told lawmakers on Thursday.

“We are working as expeditiously as possible to complete a review” on the issue, Daniel Benjamin, coordinator for counter-terrorism at the US State Department, told a congressional hearing.

The People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, also known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq Organisation, figures on the US watch list, but was removed from a list of 50 banned militant groups compiled by the European Union in January 2009.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2011.