(CNN) -- Iraq agreed to temporarily relocate members of an Iranian opposition group, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, while a U.N. refugee agency begins efforts to resettle the exiles, the United Nations announced on its website Monday.
Under the U.N. agreement, Iraq will relocate the residents of Camp Ashraf, also known as New Camp Iraq -- the home of the opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK -- to a temporary camp. There, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees will begin efforts to resettle the group outside of the country, the statement said.
The Iraqi government has said it will close the camp by December 31, and without a U.N. agreement there were no clear assurances the exiles would be protected against attacks by Iraqi forces, or reprisals from neighboring Iran.
Iran and the United States consider the MEK a terrorist organization. It has been on the U.S. terrorism list since 1997 because of the killing of six Americans in Iran in the 1970s and an attempted attack against the Iranian mission to the United Nations in 1992.
A memorandum of understanding between the U.N. and Iraq was signed Sunday, the same day that the Iranian exiles claimed in a statement that two rockets struck their camp in northeastern Iraq.
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"I want to make it very clear that this memorandum of understanding is about voluntary relocation and its implementation is based firmly on all sides acting peacefully and in good faith," said Martin Kobler, special representative of the U.N.'s secretary-general and head of the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).
Kobler, who signed the agreement, also called on member nations to accept the Iranian exiles in to their countries.
The agreement includes "a clear commitment from the Government of Iraq to ensure the safety and security of the residents at the new location," according to the U.N.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed the agreement, calling it a viable solution and urged the Iranian group to accept it.
"To be successful, this resettlement must also have the full support of the camp's residents, and we urge them to work with the U.N. to implement this relocation," Clinton said in a statement released late Sunday.
"All those who want to see the people at Camp Ashraf safe and secure should work together to see that the agreed upon plan is carried out."
Shahin Gobadi, spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political coalition that includes MEK, said the group was waiting to see an official document from the United Nations regarding Camp Ashraf.
"We hope that it would officially include the minimum assurances so that it would be acceptable to Ashraf residents," Gobadi said. "Ashraf residents had repeatedly emphasized that they would in no way accept forcible relocation."
Gobadi said his group welcomed Clinton's statement.
"But we reject and consider unacceptable anything contrary to her statement," he said.
The agreement also calls for UNHCR to immediately deploy a team to the temporary camp and provide "around the clock monitoring" of the group until it is resettled outside of Iraq, the U.N. said.
Camp Ashraf was established in 1986 after Saddam Hussein invited members of the MEK to relocate to Iraq in an effort to undermine the Iranian government, which was at war with Iraq.
Since 2004, the United States has considered the residents of Camp Ashraf "noncombatants" and "protected persons" under the Geneva Conventions, though the group remains on the U.S. terror list. A U.N. commission on refugees has described the residents as "formal asylum seekers" against persecution by the regime in Iran.
The group believes the current regime in Iraq, under orders from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, has twice staged deadly attacks against the camp that resulted in the deaths of almost 50 people.
More than 3,000 exiles, described as Iranian resistance figures and their sympathizers, live at the camp.
Under the plan, the Camp Ashraf residents will be moved to a camp near the Baghdad International Airport. The facility will remain open for an unspecified period of time, though a senior U.S. administration official said last week that there were plans to keep it open until all of the camp residents were resettled.
CNN's Azadeh Ansari and Arwa Damon contributed to this report.
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