UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon late Wednesday expressed appreciation to the Iraqi Government for the "spirit of cooperation" it has shown over the past few months, and thanked the Iranian residents of Camp New Iraq (formerly Camp Ashraf) for their cooperation when some 1,935 of them were peacefully transferred to the temporary transit centre Camp Hurriya, his press office said in a statement.

"He urges both sides to continue to work constructively in this regard with a view to peacefully concluding the transfer of the remaining residents as soon as possible" and "reiterates that violence should, at all costs, be avoided," the statement added. He urged the residents of Camp New Iraq to cooperate with Baghdad and "fully abide by the laws of the country," and to "earnestly prepare for their next transfer to Camp Hurriya, without further delay," calling on the Iraqi Government to continue to meet its international humanitarian obligations and to exercise restraint. Ban reiterated his call on Member States to accept for resettlement those residents who qualify as refugees, and expressed full support for the ongoing efforts by his Special Representative Martin Kobler to facilitate a peaceful and durable solution to the issue.

The residents are Iranian exiles opposed to the regime in Iran and seek to bring it down.

In line with a memorandum of understanding signed in December by the UN and Baghdad, some two-thirds of the residents have been re-located to a temporary transit location near Baghdad known as Camp Hurriya, where a process to determine refugee status is being carried out by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Some 1,300 exiles are still awaiting transfer to the transit centre.