Bush-era officials urge Obama to strike off Iran opposition group from terror list

WASHINGTON - Several Bush-era officials have urged the Obama administration to strike off an Iranian opposition group from its terror blacklist, and support the regime change in Iran.

Former officials Tom Ridge, John Bolton, Frances Townsend and Michael Mukasey, who worked under the then US president, George W. Bush, have backed delisting the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI), which is also known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK).

The officials said such an approach was needed because US President Barack Obama’s administration’s policy of engaging Iran would fail to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, The News reported.

“We should take off the list of terrorist organizations the one group that is devoted to restoring freedom in Iran,” Mukasey, who was Attorney General under Bush, told an audience in a Washington hotel.

Former Homeland Security advisor Townsend said that not only the PMOI should be delisted, but also the entire terrorism blacklist should be abolished completely, because she claimed it is not compiled objectively.

The PMOI was originally designated by the US State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) on October 8, 1997 during the administration of the then president, Bill Clinton.

It has been redesignated in subsequent years, including by the Bush administration. (ANI)