Erbil, Asharq Al-Awsat – Iraqiya bloc leader Iyad Allawi informed Asharq Al-Awsat that “Iraq today is facing a genuine political crisis that requires a return to the agreements made by the Iraqi political forces as part of the [Erbil] initiative put forward by Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, and of which not one single point has been implemented, especially as the situation today has stalled and there is significant deterioration in the security and economic situation.” He added that “this situation is unacceptable; we must either exit this crisis by returning to what we agreed upon in Erbil, or initiate early elections to resolve the situation with regards to the [political] majority and minority, according to the internationally accepted principles of democracy.”
In a statement issued on the sidelines of his visit to the Kurdistan region, Allawi said that “just last week, I discussed the political crisis that is taking place in Iraq with Massoud Barzani, within the framework of his [Erbil] initiative, which was an important national initiative based upon partnership and patriotism. We, the Iraqi political forces, conducted lengthy discussion on this initiative during the Erbil summit, and this ended with an agreement on 9 central themes on how to achieve this participation.’
Allawi added “unfortunately no progress has been made in implementing these 9 themes, and we have not seen the parties who signed this agreement take even one step to fulfil this.” He stressed that “the situation in the country has now stalled, and there is significant deterioration in the security and economic situation…Barzani’s initiative revitalized the atmosphere regarding the previous crisis over the formation of a government, and the [Erbil] agreement was made in this regard, however until now, despite more than one year passing, not even a single point of this agreement has been implemented. The time has now come for us to sit down and talk about why the agreement has not been implemented, and who is responsible for this, otherwise we will announce that this agreement is dead and null and resort to other means.”
He added “these issues need to be clarified, I have carried out talks with Massoud Barzani and Mr. Barham Saleh and other leaders in the Kurdistan region in this regard, and everybody agrees on the need to return to talks and dialogue and search for ways to ensure the implementation of what was agreed.
As for the deteriorating situation in Iraq, Allawi said “there is certainly a political crisis in the country…there has been no materialization of the principle of genuine participation, which is what we agreed upon. As for the security situation, there has been a dangerous deterioration in the state of security, indeed in just 16 days 81 people [Iraqi officials] have been killed by people wielding silenced pistols, whilst the problems and disputes between the [Iraqi] federal government and the Kurdistan region have also not been resolved.”