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Friday 22 July 2011

EFE: Howard Dean asks U.S. to transfer Iranian refugees in Iraq to the West .

Paris, July 20 (EFE – Spain News Agency) - The Iranian refugee Camp Ashraf in Iraq should be transferred in the next six months to the U.S., Canada and European countries, called the former Democratic Party chairman and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean on Friday.

The American politicians took part in an international conference held in Paris on the situation of the camp located northeast of Baghdad which was attacked on April 8 by Iraqi military, killing 35 people and wounding 377 others.
Dean told the crowd of several hundred that the United States has an obligation to do something about the situation and not much time is left.   He added that the solution is clear and American’s only have six months to get the people out of Iraq and move them to Europe, Canada or the United States.
Speaking to EFE, Dean said he expects the European Union (EU) would provide asylum immediately, since "many of them have lived on the continent, speak the languages of the EU are well aware of local culture."

Dean added that Failing to act before the yearend would put the lives of 3,400 refugees in danger.
Some 3,400 opponents of the Iranian regime belonging to the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), live in Camp Ashraf from almost twenty years ago.  Residents put their weapons down in 1990, but are still considered terrorists by Tehran.

Since 1997, under the administration of Bill Clinton, PMOI was blacklisted by the United State.

In this respect, Dean called for removal of the group from US blacklist, as did the EU in 2009.

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