Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi in an interview with CNN said the formation of a new coalition government as the solution to resolve Iraq’s current crisis.
“I have spoken in the last three days with the senior politicians in Iraq, and I told them that what we should look at now is how to convene a small meeting as a summit meeting to see the road map ahead, what can we do, and to form a government of leaders, not a government of second or third people, but rather the leaders should be involved. I think this can salvage the situation… Hakim accepted this. Jafari himself, the head of the National Alliance accepted this, former prime minister, others have accepted this. I have asked Jafari to speak to Maliki to accept this. Because if he doesn’t, then the only outcome is going to be dismemberment of the country,” he said.
Allawi rejected any coalition with Maliki under the current status and said, “I think it’s too late for him. Nobody is going trust him and nobody is going to take his word. He had the opportunity in 2010, both himself and the United States, and both of them failed to grasp the opportunity and work towards a unified Iraq.”
“In the night the Baghdad belt is under the control of the armed people. Definitely the belt of Baghdad is under their control and the government is unable to challenge this. The government is unable to prevent explosions inside Baghdad, even in the areas around the Green Zone. The Shiites are not really respecting the government. They see that Maliki, if you take for example al-Sadr, if you take Hakim, you can see very clearly they reject Maliki insisting on power. Maliki is continuing to insist on power,” Allawi added.