Iraq’s demonstrations and the political positions: Allawi and Al-Iraqiya List

Just after I wrote this, it is reported that Allawi is Iraq’s nom­i­nee to head the Arab League and he is sup­ported by all polit­i­cal blocs in Iraq includ­ing Maliki say­ing that this is the best way to solve Allawi’s prob­lem (and get rid of him).

Allawi’s deci­sion to with­draw from the National Coun­cil for the strate­gic pol­icy at a time when the Iraqi street is prepar­ing to demon­strate the “Day of the Mar­tyrs”. The with­drawal is an attempt to keep pace with the Iraqi street, who blames Allawi for offer­ing con­ces­sions to Maliki’s “State of Law”, and has always asked Allawi to give up the Coun­cil and join the oppo­si­tion, or with­draw from the polit­i­cal process entirely.

After Al-Iraqiya offi­cially adopted the demands of the demon­stra­tors, Allawi announced today to Al-Arab news­pa­per that he ready to lead the demon­stra­tors [image above].

Allawi will gain more pop­u­lar­ity in the Iraqi street, who would appre­ci­ate him this step, which came simul­ta­ne­ously with the anger demonstrations.

More expected gain for Allawi’s Al-Iraqiya are:

- The aban­don­ment of the polit­i­cal agree­ment which is the foun­da­tion of the of the “national unity” Gov­ern­ment, which includes all the major Iraqi polit­i­cal forces par­tic­i­pated in the par­lia­men­tary elec­tions. Allawi’s with­drawal will uncov­ered Maliki’s gov­ern­ment, to become a major­ity government.

- To con­firm the inabil­ity of the polit­i­cal process to accom­mo­date other groups, which is a mes­sage to the United States to adjust the polit­i­cal process to inte­grate var­i­ous seg­ments of Iraqi soci­ety so that they are able to express their inter­ests, because the alter­na­tive is more violence.

- A mes­sage to the regional coun­tries, which are in dif­fer­ences with Maliki, and insisted on the power-sharing agree­ment and the prin­ci­ple of part­ner­ship, to ensure its inter­ests in Iraq. Allawi’s with­drawal from the agree­ment would lead to the return of regional diplo­macy move­ment of these coun­tries to try to secure their interests.

ِAllawi’s deci­sion would put Al-Iraqiya List in a dif­fi­cult posi­tion and will will lead to a split between a stream which wants to con­tinue the par­tic­i­pa­tion in the cur­rent gov­ern­ment, and those who would wel­come Allawi’s deci­sion, and agree on the need to achieve a real participation.

The new fac­tor to impose itself on the polit­i­cal process in Iraq, are the demon­stra­tions that put all the polit­i­cal forces in a dif­fi­cult posi­tion and affects the polit­i­cal options.