Al-Masry Al-Youm has learnt that some leading figures of the Iranian opposition group People's Mujahedin arrived in Cairo last week to discuss their cause with some Egyptian bodies and human rights organizations. This visit followed the Iraqi government's announcement that it would expel several thousands of this group's members (currently living in the Ashraf City camp) from Iraq or deliver them to the Iranian authorities, which would try and liquidate them. According to sources, the Iranian opponents are due to leave Cairo today after holding meetings over the past few days with some human rights organizations in Egypt, such as the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), and trying to meet leading figures of the Human Rights Council. The sources linked the Iranian opponents' arrival in Cairo to the recently tense relations between Egypt and Iran on the backdrop of Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip. At the same time, though, these sources did not confirm whether their arrival was an indication that Cairo backed this Iranian group as a reaction to Iran's pressures to foil the Egyptian Initiative for a ceasefire in Gaza. CIHRS Director Bahieddin Hassan denied meeting the delegation or hearing about its arrival in Cairo. However, Hafez Abu Saada, secretary general of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, said he had met two members of the group who explained their problem with the Iraqi government. He said they had asked some organizations to sign a statement calling on the international community to protect them from the dangerous possibility of being expelled from Iraq or being handed to Iran. Abu Saada, though, ruled out that Egypt could grant political asylum to the People's Mujahedin in spite of the tense relations between Cairo and Tehran, as this would spark a crisis between the two countries. Sources told Al-Masry that some 20 members of the People's Mujahedin group had entered Iran over the past few weeks - in light of pressures on the Iraqi government - and had been liquidated. 1,000 more still have foreign passports, but Iraq is demanding that they leave for another country, the source also affirmed, adding that 3,500 people do not have any passport and have no other choice but to go back to Iran.
