Coverage of Iraq’s parliamentary elections by the Iranian media has been minimal. However, the website IR Diplomacy run a special 40-page election issue titled “Expecting Change.” One of the more interesting interviews they conducted was with former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
Iran and Allawi have a contentious relationship. In 2010, it was reported that Iran opposed Allawi’s premiership. Allawi, in turn, had accused Iran of funding terrorism across the Middle East. That one of Iran’s top foreign policy publications would interview such a strong critic of Iran was surprising. IR Diplomacy’s editor-in-chief Mohammad-Sadegh Kharazi was a foreign policy adviser to former Reformist President Mohammad Khatami. Iran’s current Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was one of the early advisers for IR Diplomacy.
