Iraqi Politician Saleh Al-Mutlaq: It Is in Iraq's Interest to Support the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization

Following are excerpts from an interview with Saleh Al-Mutlaq, Chairman of the Iraqi National Dialogue Front, which aired on Al-Rafiden TV on December 2, 2007:

Interviewer: You have good relations with the Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq organization. This organization is allowed to remain in Iraq, and enjoys the protection of the American occupation. Could it be used as a Trojan horse in the event of a confrontation between the U.S. and Iran?

Saleh Al-Mutlaq: We should discuss whether it is in our interests to understand the conditions of Mojahedin-e Khalq, or to be their enemies. In principle, they are our guests, and so they must not be harmed. They have been guests for more than a couple of days. They have been in Iraq for around a quarter of a century, and they were invited to Iraq. So as a matter of principle, they must not be harmed. In terms of interests, the Iranian intelligence has infiltrated Iraq. It has killed thousands of Iraqis, destroyed the infrastructure in Iraq, and completely destroyed the Iraqi economy, so that today, there is no agriculture or industry.

Even milk products and onions are imported from Iran. There is no longer any agriculture or industry in Iraq. Even worse – it has reached the point that merchandise coming from Iran is defective. We don't want to frighten the Iraqis, but we say to them: This expired, foul merchandise that you are getting today – even if you do not consider it to be an imminent danger, it is accumulative, and will become evident in future generations, because of the diseases caused by there spoiled substances, that arrive from outside Iraq – and mostly from Iran. I don't want to go into the details of what will happen, because I don't want to frighten my people, but there is a very great danger in this sense. Iran is doing all of this to us, yet we mean to fight an organization opposed to the Iranian regime? By what logic and for the sake of what interests should we be treating the Mojahedin-e Khalq organization this way? If anybody shows me that Mojahedin-e Khalq ever harmed Iraqis, I will take a different position toward them.