According to Limes, after the European Union blacklisted the PMOI in 2002 following Britain, it seems as though Washington is following in the footsteps of EU to remove the group from its list.
The magazine wrote that in June, senior former officials in the US attended two conferences in Washington and Brussels to ask for delisting the PMOI.
“It is not only Bill Richardson, former Energy Secretary from 1998 to 2000, that is against this listing. General James Jones, former US National Security Advisor until November 2010, is also stressing that now is the time to remove the PMOI from the list by following the EU lead.”
Limes wrote, “Most importantly, many in Washington have accepted the fact that the Obama administration has been convinced that it should delist the PMOI. It has not done so thus far in order to play out the negotiations card over Iran’s nuclear program. It did not want the Iranian regime to refuse (negotiations).”
The magazine also pointed to assaults against 3,400 Iranian dissidents and PMOI members in Ashraf, saying, “In the midst of an unsafe and vulnerable situation, the Iranian regime’s hands are seen in Iraq just like Afghanistan. The regime wants to export the model of its Islamic republic to Iraq.”