Iranian opposition holds annual conference

(27 Jun 2014) The People's Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK), the country's opposition group, held their annual conference on Friday in Villepinte, outside Paris, which was attended by thousands of supporters. Maryam Rajavi, the Paris-based head of the exiled opposition group, blamed Iran for increasing sectarian violence in Iraq and called on its leader, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, to step down. Sunni militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), have taken control of large parts of Iraq in recent weeks. "Al-Maliki should be removed from power, according to the demands of the Iraqi people and based on the international and regional consensus," Rajavi said. "The current situation in Iraq is the result of the Iranian regime meddling in Iraq and its puppet government of (Iraqi Prime Minister) Nouri al-Maliki," she added. Various US generals who served in Iraq from the invasion in 2003 onward were amongst those who attended the event. David Phillips, a retired US Army Brigadier General, called for a real "government of inclusion" and said al-Maliki had "disenfranchised a significant part of the population". The People's Mujahedeen of Iran, which began as a guerrilla movement fighting Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, helped overthrow the monarch in 1979 then quickly fell out with the Islamic Republic's first leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. MEK later teamed up with Iraq to battle Iran in an eight-year war in the 1980s, then from its Iraqi base continued military action against neighbouring Iran. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...