{mosimage}BPCIF: London, 2 April - At an evening reception in Parliament on Tuesday to mark the Persian New Year, cross-party Members of Parliament and peers came out in defence of the 3,500 Iranian dissidents living in Camp Ashraf, Iraq, who are facing a crackdown and threat of expulsion at the behest of the Tehran regime.

British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom

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{mosimage}London, 2 April - At an evening reception in Parliament on Tuesday to mark the Persian New Year, cross-party Members of Parliament and peers came out in defence of the 3,500 Iranian dissidents living in Camp Ashraf, Iraq, who are facing a crackdown and threat of expulsion at the behest of the Tehran regime.

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale, who chairs the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom, told the crowd that MPs and Peers were eager to continue their support for the residents of Camp Ashraf who are members of the main Iranian opposition group, the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran. Following successive rulings by the Court of Appeal in the UK and the European Court of Justice, the group was de-proscribed in the UK last year, and the EU lifted the group's name from its terrorist list in January 2009, said Conservative MP David Amess.

Lord Corbett said the mullahs' Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had demanded of the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani that Iraq "implements the bilateral agreement to expel the PMOI". Iraq's National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie has ordered Iraqi forces to cordon parts of Ashraf and prevent basic commodities such as medicine and fuel from reaching the residents, he said.

Former Speaker of the House of Commons, Rt. Hon. Baroness Boothroyd, who now sits in the House of Lords, told the participants that the US government had a duty to protect the residents of Ashraf since they were recognised as "protected persons" under the Fourth Geneva Convention and international law. Her call was echoed by former Conservative Home Secretary Rt. Hon. Lord Waddington QC, who asked American forces to retake control of protection of Ashraf from Iraqi forces in order to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.

Tory peer Baroness Verma described Iranian Resistance leader Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, who had sent a message to the event, as an icon and role model for all women of the world.

Lord King of West Bromwich, a Labour peer from Birmingham, said British and American servicemen had lost their lives to bring democracy to Iraq, and that it was only just for Iraq to now respect democratic laws and conventions in dealing with the residents of Ashraf.

Lady Slynn, wife of retired European Court judge Rt. Hon. Lord Slynn of Hadley GBE, said: "The Persian New Year is a time of joy and happiness. The brave PMOI members in Ashraf City have been celebrating it in this spirit despite the hardships they are currently enduring. In so doing, they would like to give hope to the people of Iran who are under the daily oppression of the mullahs".

Welsh Liberal Democrat MP Mark Williams said the regime in Iran continues to carry out flagrant violations of human rights, adding that the Foreign Office was urged last week by MPs at a Parliamentary debate to compel the US to fulfil its international obligation to protect Ashraf residents, whose present circumstances are a result of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Fellow Lib Dem peer Lord Cotter said he was happy to be supporting the Iranian Resistance at a time when it offers hope against the threat of expansion of Iranian fundamentalism.

Brian Binley MP from the Conservative Party condemned the ongoing Iraqi crackdown against Ashraf residents at the behest of the mullahs' regime, which he said violated the Geneva Conventions and International Humanitarian Law. He said that MPs would continue to remind the US government of its international obligations towards Ashraf in order to avert a humanitarian catastrophe from unfolding there.

Click here to see pictures of the 2009 Persian New Year evening reception 

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