"More than 70 Mujahedeen who carry refugee cards from France, Germany, Canada and the United States are stranded in the no man's land two kilometers (one and a quarter miles) from Jordan's Al-Karama border post," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Among them is singer Ashraf Sadat Mortezai, 77, known by the stage name "Marieh," and Ali Mostashari, a political science professor at a Paris university, the official said.

Diplomatic sources meanwhile told AFP they were waiting for lists concerning these people.

"Twenty-eight of these Iranians claim to have French refugee documents but we are not sure that these documents are valid and we cannot verify them until the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) provides us with lists," one source told AFP.

"Sending them back to Iran is out of the question but unless we can verify the lists we cannot know whether or not they are political refugees in France," the source said.

The NGO official said many of the Iranians do not have valid documents.

On Sunday the UNHCR urged the Jordanian authorities to allow those blocked at the border to be transferred on a temporary basis to a refugee camp set up in Rweished, the Jordanian border town near Al-Karama.

A Jordanian official said Tuesday the authorities were first waiting for a commitment from the embassies concerned that they will take the necessary measures to repatriate these refugees, before allowing them into the country.

"Third country refugees must be repatriated to their host country or their country of origin in line with the agreements reached (with them)," said the Jordanian, who declined to be named.

He said contacts were established with the concerned embassies who were waiting for UNHCR lists in order to determine the status of these Iranians.

"Marzieh," as she has been known to Iranians for the past 50 years, is a legend in her lifetime, and the most prominent Iranian singer. She was born in Tehran in 1926 and is based in France.

She defected in 1994 and joined ranks with the People's Mujahedeen during a public rally in Paris and is also the artistic adviser to the group's leader, Maryam Rajavi.

In September 1994 Marzieh accepted an honorary membership of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, saying it was an honor to stand alongside the Iranian resistance.

SPACE.WIRE