Iraqi Politician to Zaman Alwasl: Maliki’s rule ended, 'Iraq returns to Arabs'

(Reporting by Abdullah Raja; Translation by Dani Murad)

TheIraqi Prime Minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has resisted all international and regional calls to work toward reconciling Sunni Arabs and Kurds, instead, he ruled the country according to sectarian affiliations and recruited Shiites to battle Sunni tribes; lack of trust across ethnic lines is stirring a political opposition that seeks to replace Mailiki with a unifier leader that supports all Iraqi sects.

In this context, the leader of the National conference and member of the National Alliance’s political body, Rahim al-Daraji informed Zaman Alwasl that the Iraqi leaders have unanimously decided to end the role of Nuri al-Maliki in the next Iraqi government.

Daraji said that “What is happening in Iraq today eliminated any role of Maliki in the next Iraqi government, and its regime’s survival is definitely not possible, because if he stays in his position, Iraq will be on fire, a fertile land for sectarian war and divisions”.

Moreover, Daraji says that “there is a political dynamic movement between Iraqi leaders in order to crystallize the formation of “a national unity government” away from al-Maliki, and the region of Iraq's Kurdistan plays a key role in this movement that represents all parties, and also he believes that the solution to this government, is to represent all segments of the Iraqi people.

The Iraqi leader pointed out, that next month will be crucial to Iraq’s history, when the house of representatives will elect its president and deputies, as well as electing the country’s president and his two deputies, and consequently, the head of the government will be chosen in accordance with the constitution’s principles .

In addition to that, Darraji attacked the reign of Nuri al-Maliki, saying it was an era of Iranian excellence, as Iranians dominated all aspects of the Iraqi state, and Maliki adopted the approaches of cronyism and favoritism in all the states’ institutions.

Since Nouri al-Maliki rose into power in Iraq, he hasn’t been able to build a purely national Iraqi institution, and relied solely on the support of Iran which brought Iraq to this point of chaos and sectarian war, and Iranians were manipulating Maliki, who was an excellent tool for Iranian agenda which isolated Iraq from the Arab world, and as a result, Iraq has become out of the Arabs’ accounts, but it will return one day to be part of the Arab world. He concluded

Al-Maliki who began his political career as a Shia dissident under Saddam Hussein ruling in the late 1970s and rose to prominence after he fled a death sentence into exile for 24 years. During his time abroad, he built relationships with Iranian and Syrian officials whose help he sought in overthrowing Saddam. While having worked closely with United States and coalition forces in Iraq, to become the new prime minster that led Iraq into a turmoil of bloody sectarian tension that lasted until today.