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Iran’s meddling in Iraq is on the rise

ImageEventsDr. Abdullah Al-Jabouri, Former Governor of Diyala province in Iraq:

Chief among the enemies of a democratic and secular Iraq are those who want Iraq to be an Islamic fundamentalist dictatorship. Islamic fundamentalism is an imported problem in my country. Iran has played a major role in this. Tehran has been behind much of the violence in Iraq against civilians and anti-fundamentalist politicians.
Day after day, the Iraqi police and intelligence agencies have arrested Iraqis and non-Iraqis who have either been paid a lot of money or crossed the border to create unrest and whip up religious and ethnic tensions in my country. In Diyala province where I served as a Governor until last April, we managed to capture many Iranian agents, and Iraqi and foreign nationals who were receiving money and arms from Tehran.
On the Mujahedeen-e Khalgh and their terrorist listing by the US State Department I must say that the Mojahedin has been based in my province since 1986, prior to the war in Iraq. In all these years, the Mojahedin enjoyed enormous support among the local population. While the government of Saddam Hussein restricted the contact between the Mojahedin and the Iraqi people, the limited contact were nevertheless quite helpful in giving us Iraqis an understanding of what Islam is really about, because the Mojahedin presented an anti-fundamentalist interpretation of the religion.
The restrictions on the Mojahedin left our province wide open to external meddling and interference. There has been much propaganda about the Mojahedin’s relations with the Saddam regime and allegations that they helped the regime with its suppression. The source of all allegations is the Iranian regime.
Why should we judge the Mojahedin on the basis of what their enemies say? If there was any evidence of the Mojahedins wrongdoing with respect to any Iraqi citizens, including the kurds, I am sure two years after the fall of Saddam it would have come to the fore. There has been no such evidence, because the Mojahedin has never interfered in the affairs of Iraqis. I must emphasize that among the 2.8 million Iraqis who signed the petition of support, there are many kurds, turkomans, shias and Christians.
The sheer presence of the Mojahedin was providing security to the region, because the people in the province have complete trust in them.