Word: ashraf
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...Shah's regime. But it was no less opposed to the Islamist regime that arrived with Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, which executed thousands of the group's supporters. By the mid-1980s, the group had cozied up to Saddam Hussein, who provided them with funds and a compound, Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad. The U.S. government has accused the group of helping Saddam brutally put down a Kurdish rebellion in the early 1990s, and of launching numerous attacks inside Iran...
...Clinton Administration declared the MEK a terrorist organization in 1997, partly as a carrot to the "reformist" administration of Iran's then-President Mohammad Khatami. The E.U. followed suit after 9/11, but as the drums of war began sounding against Iraq, Rajavi and her husband, Massoud, left Camp Ashraf. Massoud's whereabouts are unknown, but Maryam repaired to a bridgehead in Auvers-sur-Oise, a small town northwest of Paris. French anti-terrorist police raided the place in 2003, securing millions of euros and taking Rajavi and some of her collaborators into custody. Several of Rajavi's followers set themselves...
...while the French were investigating Rajavi's group in France, the more than 3,000 MEK adherents at Camp Ashraf have been under the benevolent protection of the U.S. military since early 2003. With this ruling, Rajavi hopes, they and what she claims are their far more numerous supporters in Iran will be freed to answer a call from the homeland. "I say to the mullahs that they're finished," said Rajavi in Strasbourg. "A new era will open with the installation of liberty and democracy in Iran...
...Winning the U.N. job has required Ban to make nice with both the U.S. and China, a challenge even for a diplomat of Ban's skills. The U.S. preferred either Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga or former Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani, but both were vetoed by other permanent Security Council members. Washington's reluctance was due in part to South Korea's growing coziness with China and by Seoul's "sunshine policy" of engagement with Pyongyang. The U.S. is skeptical that Ban, long careful to avoid stepping on toes, would really be willing to challenge the entrenched interests inside...
Pursuing the U.N. job has required Ban to make nice with both the U.S. and China, a challenge even for a diplomat of Ban's skills. The U.S. preferred either Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga or former Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani, but both were vetoed by other permanent Security Council members. Washington's reluctance was due in part to South Korea's growing coziness with China and by Seoul's "sunshine policy" of engagement with Pyongyang, which some Administration officials say has hindered efforts to get tough with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. The U.S. is skeptical that...