“We believe that Saudi Arabia never stopped meddling in the affairs of Iraq,” Sa’ad al-Muttalibi, from the State of Law Coalition, said in a Friday interview.
He argued that Saudi Arabia’s meddling takes place in the form of both financial aid for certain political factions and military support for terrorist groups in Iraq.
On April 25, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki warned that Saudi Arabia is “clearly” meddling in the internal affairs of Iraq and facilitating the entry of foreign terrorists into the country.
“Now with closeness of the election they tried in many ways to push their supporters or those Iraqi politicians that are closely linked to Saudi Arabia, push them to try in many ways to harm the reputation of Iraq or the Prime Minister or State of Law or the political poses in general,” Muttalibi pointed out.
The Saudi officials had previously condemned such accusations describing them as "irresponsible and aggressive."
On April 30, Iraq held parliamentary elections, its first nationwide polls since the US troops withdrew in 2011.
Election Spokesman Safaa al-Moussawi said the turnout from the elections was about 60 percent, with the Kurdish province of Erbil having the highest turnout with 90 percent.
The parliamentary vote was held despite threats by al-Qaeda-linked militants who had warned that they would spoil the election process. Several fatal attacks did occur as voters went to polling stations.
