London, Asharq Al-Awsat- Former Iraqi Prime Minister Dr Iyad Allawi has warned that his country is heading "towards the abyss" and that a "disaster" might befall it, the region, and the world if an end is not put to the deterioration in the security, living, and economic conditions and to the existing sectarian tendencies and if the "blatant" Iranian interference in Iraq”s internal affairs does not stop.
Speaking in an interview with "Asharq al-Awsat", Allawi said that Iraq is now in dire need for a "democratic, liberal, national" bloc in the elections that would be held at the end of this year in order to form a "national unity government" that can stop what he called "the rupture of the social fabric" and "reject the sectarian quota and prevent foreign interference" in Iraqi affairs. He also stressed that "saving Iraq is today a national, Arab, Islamic, and international task and all the forces should rally together toward protecting and consolidating the national unity through a clear, specific, and constructive program and by building and entrenching the state”s institutions."
Allawi pointed to the "expanding" role of the militias in Iraq under the present government and warned of the grave dangers resulting from this and said, "This poses great danger to national unity in Iraq." He also confirmed that there is direct Iranian interference in the Iraqi affairs and disclosed in the interview that he was the target of three assassination attempts, the latest by a group "from a neighboring country."
On the other hand, two Iraqi civilians were injured in an explosion caused by a booby-trapped vehicle that targeted a foreign company”s security convoy in Baghdad yesterday. The police also dismantled another booby-trapped vehicle in Basra at dawn yesterday only hours after the explosion of a car the night before that killed 16 persons and injured 20, all of them Iraqis. Sixteen bodies with eyes blindfolded and hands tied were discovered south of Baghdad while the US Army announced another air raid on the border with Syria that targeted what it called an "Al-Qaeda" hideout.