The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran said on Sunday that Slovenian Ambassador Christina Radi has been summoned to the ministry to receive an official letter of protest in response to the Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa’s “unacceptable and undiplomatic” move to take part in a virtual gathering arranged by the MKO terrorist group.
In the meeting with the Slovenian envoy, the Iranian foreign minister’s assistant and director-general of the Foreign Ministry’s department of the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe expressed the Islamic Republic’s “strong protest at the baseless allegations raised against Iran” by handing the letter of protest to the ambassador, it said.
The envoy was notified that the Slovenian premier’s participation in an event organized by a terrorist group that is abhorred by the great Iranian nation as well as his wrong and groundless remarks run counter to the diplomatic norms and to the spirit of the bilateral relations and are totally condemned, the statement added.
The ambassador of Slovenia has been also reminded that supporting a terrorist group is in violation of the UN Charter, the internationally-recognized principles, and the human rights values, and are not acceptable by any means.
The government of Slovenia has been asked to provide an explanation for the anti-Iranian move, the statement added, noting that the envoy has pledged that she would convey Tehran’s protest to Ljubljana.
Slovenian Prime Minister Jansa and former US state secretary Mike Pompeo were among speakers at a gathering of the MKO terrorist group, held in Berlin on Saturday.
The MKO -listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community- fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq and was given a camp by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
They fought on the side of Saddam during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-88). They were also involved in the bloody repression of Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq in 1991 and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.
The notorious group is also responsible for killing thousands of Iranian civilians and officials after the victory of the Islamic revolution in 1979.
More than 17,000 Iranians, many of them civilians, have been killed at the hands of the MKO in different acts of terrorism including bombings in public places, and targeted killings.