BRUSSELS, Jan 26: European states agreed on Monday to remove exiled Iranian opposition group the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran from an EU list of banned terrorist groups, an EU official said.

The official confirmed that EU foreign ministers approved a decision to take it off a list that includes Palestinian Hamas and Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers.

The organisation is the group which exposed Iran’s covert nuclear programme in 2002. It began as a leftist-Islamist opposition to the late Shah of Iran and has bases in Iraq.

Western analysts say its support in Iran is limited because of its collaboration with Iraq during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. It remains banned in the US.

Mujhideen’s organisation allies have repeatedly accused the EU which has led efforts to persuade Iran to curb its nuclear programme of seeking to “appease” Tehran by keeping the group blacklisted.—Reuters