Wednesday, March 14, 2007
During Saudi visit, Allawi criticises Iraqi government
Politics
(Asharq al-Awsat) Dr. Iyad Allawi, former Iraqi Prime Minister and leader of Al-Iraqiyah National List, arrived in Riyadh yesterday a day after the arrival of Masud Barzani, president of Iraq's Kurdistan region, where he was received by King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz and held talks with him which dealt with the latest developments in the Iraqi situation.
Allawi called Nuri al-Maliki's Government the offspring of the sectarian and ethnic situation in Iraq and has several terms of reference and therefore is incapable of achieving national unity. He called on the Iraqi government to abandon its sectarian stands and sectarian quotas and to be the government for all Iraqis and for Al-Maliki to be the Prime Minister of a government for all Iraqis and not for a certain community or political party in that community.
In an interview with Asharq al-Awsat conducted with him during his visit to Kuwait, where he was accompanied by a delegation from Al-Iraqiyah List, Allawi said, "This government does not represent me as a Shiite nor the Shiites in Iraq as much as it represents the politicized Shiites. We warned before and continue to warn that political sectarianism will impede and thwart the government's work as it will impede and thwart the unity of Iraqi society."
Allawi called Nuri al-Maliki's Government the offspring of the sectarian and ethnic situation in Iraq and has several terms of reference and therefore is incapable of achieving national unity. He called on the Iraqi government to abandon its sectarian stands and sectarian quotas and to be the government for all Iraqis and for Al-Maliki to be the Prime Minister of a government for all Iraqis and not for a certain community or political party in that community.
In an interview with Asharq al-Awsat conducted with him during his visit to Kuwait, where he was accompanied by a delegation from Al-Iraqiyah List, Allawi said, "This government does not represent me as a Shiite nor the Shiites in Iraq as much as it represents the politicized Shiites. We warned before and continue to warn that political sectarianism will impede and thwart the government's work as it will impede and thwart the unity of Iraqi society."
He asserted that the "the Kurdish-Sunni-Shiite division is the most dangerous thing facing Iraq and is lethal to it." He proposed the alternative of the "Iraqi national approach that believes in pluralism and the diversity of Iraqi society and gives the rights voluntarily to all the people's sectors without sectarian or factional tyranny."
Allawi disclosed that he discussed this matter with Al-Maliki several times and presented a memorandum for enabling the government to emerge from this crisis made up of 14 points that essentially say the government should be for all the Iraqis so that there would be a ray of hope that situations in Iraq would improve; otherwise Iraq would proceed along a dangerous route if the division, estrangement, and frustration remained."
Allawi disclosed that he discussed this matter with Al-Maliki several times and presented a memorandum for enabling the government to emerge from this crisis made up of 14 points that essentially say the government should be for all the Iraqis so that there would be a ray of hope that situations in Iraq would improve; otherwise Iraq would proceed along a dangerous route if the division, estrangement, and frustration remained."
Labels: al-Maliki, Iraqi National Front, Iyad Allawi, King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, Riyadh
