Iran summoned the French ambassador to Tehran on Monday, cautioning him over recent meetings with an exiled opposition organization which the government has proscribed a 'terrorist' group, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
"The ambassador was given a caution regarding hosting terrorism and supporting terrorist groups," spokesman Esmail Baghaei said during a regular briefing, referring to an event held by the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK).
The event, held in Paris on Saturday, was attended by Keith Kellogg, who is set to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine.
It follows a meeting in Paris last Thursday when the group, known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political arm of the Mojahedin-e Khalq group, hosted former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Pompeo had been part of the Trump administration which had levied crippling sanctions on Tehran for its nuclear program.
The MEK has long been a source of contention between Tehran and Western governments.
Iran views the group as a terrorist organization responsible for attacks within the country in the 1980s, while the MEK describes itself as an opposition movement seeking regime change in Iran. The group was a leftist-Islamist underground network during the monarchy, opposed to Western influence in Iran. After the revolution, which it supported, a rift developed between the newly established clerics and the MEK.
