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.

The article’s title, “Iran has a problem with the secular Allawi,” was derived from the interview. While Allawi is Shiite, he has support among some Sunni voters. He also has the support of Iran’s regional rival, Saudi Arabia.

In the interview, Allawi said that while he was hopeful about the outcome of the elections, he was also worried it would lead to sectarian divisions due to “international interference,” just as happened in the 2010 elections. When asked exactly who he meant, Allawi said he meant “all of the countries that have a type of role in Iraq and advance their own policies in Iraq. All of Iraq’s neighbors — even Syria, which is in a civil war — works to have influence in Iraq’s elections.”