TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran hit out at the US decision to grant protected status to the Iraq (news - web sites)-based People's Mujahedeen, the main Iranian armed opposition group, saying it proved Washington's war on terrorism was a sham.

"The United States is using its fight against terrorism as a tool, and we knew from the beginning that this fight is void and they are not serious," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Tuesday, quoted by the official news agency IRNA.

"Using the Geneva Convention to protect this terrorist group is naive and unacceptable," he added.

The United States confirmed Monday it had granted protected status to nearly 4,000 members of the People's Mujahedeen, now confined to a military-run camp in western Iraq.

This contrasts with the US designation of al-Qaeda detainees.

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