Former Iraqi MP Mithal Al-Alusi: We Should Normalize Relations With Both Iran And Israel; Iran Is Occupying Iraq

Former Iraqi MP Mithal Al-Alusi said in a November 20, 2021 interview on Al-Sharqiya TV (Iraq) that Iraq should normalize relations with Iran like it should with Israel. He said that Iraq and Iran are currently at war, that Iran is effectively occupying Iraq, that Iran is "exporting" its revolution to Iraq by means of the IRGC, and that Iran does not recognize Iraq's borders or sovereignty. He said that Iraq and Iran should treat each other like equals, but that this can only happen if Iran changes its mentality. Al-Alusi also discussed the nature of the regional borders defined by the Sykes-Picot Agreement.

Mithal Al-Alusi: "We need to normalize our relations with Iran as well as with Israel. We are in a state of war with both of these countries. Our first step should be to end this state of war.

"Otherwise, Iran has the right to shell us, to establish militias, to send its agents to carry out bombings and assassinations, and to build dams [on the rivers]. After all, we are in a state of war."

Journalist: "A state of war? Their foreign minister just condemned the bombing in Iraq..."

Al-Alusi: "That is routine. Diplomats lie a lot.

[...]

"We are in a state of war. We have not signed a peace agreement. There is no peace agreement between Iraq and Iran. Normalization of relations does not mean surrendering to the other side.

"What is happening now in Iraq-Iran relations is that we have handed all of our affairs to Iran, and thus, Iraq has become occupied by Iran.

"I want normalization of relations between equals, with the interests and sovereignty of both sides taken into account. We can normalize our relations with Iran when the Iranian mentality changes, and if the Iranians say that they want to normalize relations with Iraq. But Iran does not say that. Iran says it is exporting the Iranian revolution [by means of] the IRGC, and that it does not recognize the borders. This is the problem with Iran. Are the borders of Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and other countries sacred? No. these are the Sykes-Picot borders.

"We are now defending the borders set up for us by the colonialists. What [Kurdish PM] Masrour [Barzani] said two days ago caused uproar among Iraqi Arabs. But all he said was that as a Kurd, he was forced to live within the borders demarcated by the Sykes-Picot Agreement. We fought Iran over the borders demarcated by the English and by the Sykes-Picot Agreement."