TEHRAN -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry has welcomed the arrest last week of seven Iranians by FBI at Los Angeles on charges of fund raising for the Iraqi-based terrorist group Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), a reliable source with the ministry said Friday.

The West's steadily-increasing awareness of the terrorist schemes of the MKO's, he said, and their classification of the MKO as a terrorist group, and additionally their deterrent measures against the organization is a positive measure that is welcomed by the Islamic Republic.

He added that the arrest of the group at Los Angeles was proof of MKO's physical presence in and of their terrorist operations outside of Iran.

An FBI official told a Los Angeles news conference last Wednesday that the seven were arrested at Los Angeles on Tuesday following a three-year investigation by FBI.

The Iranian source in Tehran said that national governments must seriously fight terrorism and bring the terrorist MKO's to justice'', politics aside.

MKO's use neighboring Iraq as a springboard for attacks into Iran and have several bases equipped with tanks, heavy guns and helicopter gunships close to the Iranian border.

The organization has carried out several rocket attacks and assassinations in Iran's big cities in recent months as part of a campaign to overthrow the Islamic government.

(IRNA)