Following are excerpts from an interview with Mr. Ayad Jamaluddin, a prominent member of Foreign Affairs Committee in Iraq's parliament on March 8
Question: In your view, is the visit by [the Iranian regime’s former president and chairman of the mullahs’ Expediency Council, Ali Akbar Hashemi] Rafsanjani to Iraq unofficial? And is it, as you have said, a formal visit? Dr. Salim Abdollah has said that this visit is politically influential. In view of the behavior of [the Iranian regime] in Iraq, don’t the people of Iraq have representatives to stand against the Iranian actions?
Ayyad Jamaluddin: “There cannot be equal and mutual interaction with Iran unless the law for political parties in Iraq is passed and the financial resources of these parties are exposed. There are many parties and political forces who are still supplied by Iran and have an organic relationship with it. There have been changes in the Iraqi people’s political consciousness. The people have changed and the recent elections proved this point. But, does this mean that political forces have severed their historical relations with Iran? We do not want them to be enemies with Iran and wear Saddam Hussein’s “iron helmet.” We do, however, expect them to be national Iraqi forces and defend Iraq’s interests, instead of advocating the implementation of Iranian plans and agenda in Iraq.
I consider one thing to be the litmus test for Iraqi political forces. Whichever force that tries to expel the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran [PMOI/MEK] from Iraq proves that it has organic relations with Iran.
We want those forces who are in power and in the parliament to consider Iraqi interests and have relations with the Iranians on an equal footing. But, how can they do this when they are still being supplied by Iran and receive assistance from Iran for their militias and political campaigns? These aids received from Iran by the ruling parties and those in parliament cannot be exposed. There is also aid coming from other countries such as Saudi Arabia. They can only be exposed through legal means. Therefore, the law on parties must be brought forward.”