Iraqi Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee: Joint Iraqi government and Iranian regime plan for closing Ashraf is “illegal”

Arkan Arshad, an Iraqi MP from al-Iraqia Coalition said: The Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee has not been given any information about the formation of such commission, or about its envisioned functions.

Arshad said: Next week, we will question the government to explain this commission and the nature of its function.


Shakir Kitab, a spokesman for al-Iraqia asked the government of Iraq not to allow any foreign country to influence its political decisions. He said that the issue of closing Camp Ashraf is an Iraqi case and the Iranian regime cannot interfere in it.

Kitab added: “Al-Iraqia sees no justification for a commission that the Iraqi government has formed with the Iranian regime for reviewing the issue of closing Camp Ashraf.”
“It is the Iraqi Parliament that will render the opinion regarding Iraq’s interests in keeping or not keeping Camp Ashraf,” Kitab said.

Showan Mohammad Taha, an Iraqi MP from the Kurdish Coalition said: “…We will not allow foreign meddling into this issue. The Iraqi government must respect human rights of Ashraf residents and we must seek a lawful solution for this problem.”

Iraqi media reported this news and said: Saturday in Tehran, at the conference for fighting terrorism, the Iraqi President Jalal Talibani said that a trilateral commission consisted of the Iranian regime, the Iraqi government and the Red Cross has been formed in order to close Camp Ashraf by the end of this year; however, the Red Cross immediately denied Iraqi President’s statement and announced that: The Red Cross will continue its independent humanitarian activities vis-à-vis the community of 3400 people residing at Camp Ashraf