According to this news agency, " around 4,000 Iranian exiles and Iraqi supporters had gathered in the Iraqi town of Ashraf, northeast of Baghdad. The guerrilla organization has a long-standing enmity for the outgoing French President Jacques Chirac and his favored successor, the Socialist Royal’s right-wing opponent Nicholas Sarkozy."
NCRI – Last night French News Agency reported from Baghdad that "French presidential candidate Segolene Royal received a campaign endorsement from an unexpected quarter on Saturday when an Iraq-based Iranian rebel movement held a rally to support her."
According to this news agency, " around 4,000 Iranian exiles and Iraqi supporters had gathered in the Iraqi town of Ashraf, northeast of Baghdad. The guerrilla organization has a long-standing enmity for the outgoing French President Jacques Chirac and his favored successor, the Socialist Royal’s right-wing opponent Nicholas Sarkozy."
The women sat in front of three flags — those of Iran, France and Iraq.
PMOI spokesman Shahria Kia said the rally was attended by his group and by Iranian and Iraqi opposition groups who feel Royal would be a better ally than previous French presidents in their battle with the Tehran regime."
The news agency added that a statement from the groups, released to AFP, read: "We ask all of our friends, particularly all the French Muslims, to vote for Ms Royal."
"We are certain that with this choice France will retrieve its values, and will stand beside the oppressed people of Iraq and Iran against fundamentalism and terrorism exported by Iran," it added.
"The PMOI, also known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), was founded in 1965 by leftist students at Tehran university, and fled Iran after clashing with the Islamist government set up in the 1979 revolution. It was based in exile in France until 1986, when the then prime minister, Chirac, expelled them." The French News Agency reported.