May 12, 2003	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 9, 1424

NEAR MUQDADIYAH (Iraq) May 11: The Iraq-based armed Iranian opposition, a US-listed terrorist organisation, began submitting heavy weapons and thousands of fighters to US control in Iraq on Sunday, US officers said.

The disarmament deal was struck on Saturday after two days of talks between leaders of the People’s Mujahedeen and US 4th Infantry Division commander General Ray Odierno at a guerrilla base in northeastern Iraq.

But a senior Iranian minister demanded US forces hand over the opposition fighters and warned they should not be used “as a pressure lever” against Iran, which outlawed the group in 1981 after a spate of assassinations and bombings.

“If America extradites them to us, it will fulfil its responsibility. If not, America will have to send them to another country,” the conservative Siyaset-i-Rouz daily quoted Intelligence Minister Ali Younesi as saying Sunday.

Washington’s dialogue with the Mujahedeen has infuriated Iran, which has accused the United States of double standards in its “war on terror.”

Odierno said however that the group’s cooperation with US forces and its commitment to democracy in Iran meant its status as a “terrorist organisation” in Washington should be reviewed.

Speaking to AFP at a Mujahedeen base near the Iranian border on Saturday, he said the group shared “some of the same goals” as the United States in “forming democracy and fighting oppression”.— AFP