Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The United States has urged Iran’s leading opposition
group to move out of its longtime base in Iraq.

The United States has called on some 3,400 Iranian fighters and their
families to leave Iraq’s Camp Ashraf. Officials said Iraq has prepared a
temporary residence called Camp Hurriya, deemed habitable by the United
Nations but opposed by the Mujahadeen Khalq.

“The residents of Camp Ashraf must make the decision to start this
relocation process,” U.S. envoy Daniel Fried said. “Camp Ashraf is no longer a viable home for them. They have no secure future there. On the other hand, the government of Iraq has committed itself to the security of the people at Camp Hurriya and is aware that the United States expects it to fulfill its responsibilities.”

In a Feb. 7 briefing, Fried, the State Department’s adviser on Ashraf, said the Iraqi government has prepared a portion of Camp Hurriya, a former U.S. military base, to house the first Mujahadeen fighters. He said the U.S. embassy in Baghdad would monitor conditions at Hurriya, particularly the safety of the Iranian exiles.

“In short, it is time for the MEK [Mujahadeen] to make the decision to start the move out of Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty-Hurriya from where they can begin new lives outside of Iraq,” Fried said. “A peaceful solution, no matter what the circumstances, is the only acceptable solution, but it is
time to move forward.”

Officials said the United Nations has pledged to station monitors at
Hurriya to ensure the safety of the new residents. They said the State
Department also plans to send personnel to ensure that conditions at the
camp meet international standards.

Iran has been pressing the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al
Maliki to deport the Mujhadeen fighters. But Washington has warned that no
Iranian should be forced back to their country, where they face prosecution.

For its part, Mujahadeen has warned that the United States would be held
responsible for the safety of residents at Camp Ashraf, raided several times
by Iraqi security forces. At this point, Mujahadeen has not encouraged the
exiles to leave Ashraf for Hurriya.

“The MEK and the residents of Ashraf, for their part, held a
constructive set of discussions yesterday, and we welcome that,” Fried said.
“And now the decision has to be theirs to start this process and to work
with all of us so that the shared objective, shared by all the sides in
this — the UN, the Iraqi government, the people at Camp Ashraf — for a
peaceful solution. And the departure of these people from Iraq is up to
them.”

  Camp Ashraf, Camp Hurriya, Mujahadeen Khalq told to leave Camp Ashraf in Iraq, Nouri Al Maliki, U.S. envoy Daniel Fried, U.S. State Department