POLITICS / URGENT: Iraq’s iya Alliance’s Leaders, in message to New York Times: “Iraq on brink of catastrophe.”

POLITICS / URGENT: Iraq‘s al-Iraqiya Alliance’s Leaders, in message to New York Times: “Iraq on brink of catastrophe.” NEW YORK / IraqiNews.com: The Leaders of al-Iraqiya Alliance, its Chairman Iyad Allawi, the Parliament’s Speaker, Usama al-Nujeify and Finance Minister, Rafi’a al-Issawi, have published a message in the New York Times newspaper on Monday, demanding the US Administration to “link its support for Prime Minister, Nouri al-Malliky, with his implementation of the Arbil Agreement, issued by Iraqi Kurdistan President, Massoud Barzani, calling on the Iraqi political forces to abandon their differences and agree on a common plan to settle those differences. The message demanded that the US assistance for the Iraqi Army, police and security forces, include a condition that they serve the whole Iraqi Nation and not a single sectarian group or party. “Iraq today is standing on the brink of a catastrophe, following US President Obama’s commitment to end the war with Iraq, during his last election campaign, but the end had ended in such a way that won’t please anybody in Washington, as the prize that the American soldiers thought that they had been fighting for, to achieve an active, democratic and non-sectarian state in Iraq, had ended with an Iraq marching on an opposite direction, i.e.towards a sectarian hegemony that includes the danger of a destructive civil war,” the message stressed.  The message added that: “since the 2010 elections in Iraq, we have witnessed the Iraqi state’s following to al-Daawa Party, led by Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, the breaking apart of the Judiciary, frightening of the opposition forces, the dismantling of independent institutions, that encourage carrying out clean elections and fighting corruption; all this had taken place during the Arab Spring, at a time when other states have eliminated dictators for the interest of democratic governments, whilst Iraq has had an opportunity to to achieve, for the first time in the modern Middle East, a political power that transfer, through peaceful means among different political parties, following decent elections; but, instead of that, it had become an arena for fighting among different sectarian forces, according to their identities that had undermined the democratic development.” “We, the leaders of al-Iraqiya Alliance and the political alliance that won the largest number of seats in 2010 elections, representing one-quarter of the Iraqi people, don’t consider ourselves as Sunnis or Shiites, but Iraqis; and our election platform covers the wholecountry, whilst we are now being chased and threatened by Mr.Maliki, who is trying to kick us out of the Iraqi political life and create the state of a single party,” the message stressed.The message pointed out that “the past few weeks, that witnessed the end of the American military presence, another military forcehad moved to fill in the gap, with our houses and offices in Baghdad’s Green Zone, were surrounded by the security forces of Mr. Maliki, along with the imposition of a siege against our List, thing that was carried out with the blessing of the politicized Judiciary,with charges against Iraq‘s Vice-President, Tariq al-Hashimy, with supporting terrorism and the move to sack Deputy Prime Minister, Saleh al-Mutlaq.””There also exists attempts to investigate with one of us, Rafi’a al-Issawi, charging him with having alleged links with revolting elements;all this had taken place immediately after Mr.Maliki’s return to Iraq from Washington, in order to give an incorrect impression for Iraqis, that he had been given a full authorization by the United States to carry such measures,” it added.The message stressed that “after the call by US Vice-President, Joseph Biden, for the protection of Iraq‘s National Unity Government, Mr.Malliki had threatened to form a government that completely keeps away the voices of other Iraqi oppositi