TEHRAN — Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi has marked the 39th anniversary of an act of terror that killed over 70 senior figures by the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) terrorist group, saying the MEK has since remained under the auspices of the U.S. and Europe.

“39yrs ago, today, Iran Chief Justice Ayatollah Beheshti & 72senior figures were assassinated by US-, Saddam-backed MEK terrorist cult. Since then, MEK has remained under US/Euro auspices, letting it horribly kill&maim 10000+Iranians,” Mousavi tweeted on Saturday.

“Their blood on terrorist MEK supporters' hands!” he added.

The MEK was established in the 1960s to express a mixture of Marxism and Islamism. It launched bombing campaigns against the Shah, continuing after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, against the Islamic Republic. Iran accuses the group of being responsible for 17,000 deaths.

Based in Iraq at the time, MEK members were armed by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to fight against Iran during a war that lasted for 8 years in the 1980s.

In 2012, the U.S. State Department removed the MEK from its list of designated terrorist organizations under intense lobbying by groups associated with Saudi Arabia and other regimes opposed to Iran.

A few years ago, the MEK operatives were relocated from their Camp Ashraf in Iraq’s Diyala Province to Camp Hurriyet (Camp Liberty), a former U.S. military base in Baghdad, and were later relocated to Albania.

Last year, Germany’s Der Spiegel revealed that members of the MEK undergo horrific training in a camp in Albania, a country that has turned into a hub for anti-Iran activities by hosting the MEK.

On Thursday, Mousavi termed the Islamic Republic of Iran as the biggest victim of terrorist actions, “which have been taken mainly with the U.S. government’s direct and indirect supports, and with more than 17,000 people martyred in this path, is always at the forefront of the fight against terrorism at the global and regional levels.”

He also said the United States, as the world’s most infamous terrorist regime, is in no position to judge other countries.

The remarks came in response to the annual Country Reports on Terrorism released by the U.S.

Mousavi added that “The Islamic Republic of Iran categorically rejects and condemns the U.S.’s annual Country Reports on Terrorism because that regime is blatantly shifting the blame onto others, is utterly insincere, and has double standards in the fight against terrorism.”

MH/PA