Iran blames violence on exiled MEK group
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Iran's President Hassan Rouhani says an exiled opposition group is inciting violence in Iran, where anti-government protests have been held in a number of cities in recent days.
In a phone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, Rouhani called on France to stop hosting the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq group, known as the MEK. Several of the group's leaders are based in Paris.
The MEK fled after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution and later found refuge in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Heavily armed by Saddam, MEK forces launched cross-border raids into Iran during its war with Iraq, further alienating the group from many Iranians. The MEK says it renounced violence in 2001.
The State Department considered the MEK a terrorist group until 2012, when it lifted the designation.
