EU takes Iran opposition group off terror list

By Mark John

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union agreed on Monday to remove the exiled Iranian opposition group that exposed Tehran's covert nuclear programme in 2002 from a list of banned terrorist organisations.

The EU decision on the People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) followed a years-long legal row and Iran's state radio immediately branded it an "irresponsible move."

Foreign ministers of the 27-nation EU, which has unsuccessfully tried to persuade Iran to curb nuclear activities suspected as part of a bomb programme, approved the removal of the PMOI from a list of terror groups that includes Palestinian Hamas and Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers.

The decision follows a number of EU court rulings against its seven-year inclusion on the blacklist.

"What we are doing today is abiding by the resolution of the European court," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, the official leading diplomacy with Tehran, told reporters just before the ministers finalised the decision.

In Tehran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying removal of the ban amounted to encouragement of terrorism.

"It means becoming friends with terrorists," the Students news agency quoted a ministry statement as saying. "Iran believes the European Union lacks legitimacy to fight against terrorists."

The PMOI began as a leftist-Islamist opposition to the late Shah of Iran and has bases in Iraq.