Iraq on the edge
As US troops have left the country, what is preventing Iraq from moving forward?
As another series of bomb attacks hit the Iraqi capital, cracks in the power-sharing government and deep divisions between Shia, Sunni and Kurd once again appear.
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“The government should exert more effort to protect the Iraqi people and this is unacceptable by any standards. We have warned long time ago that terrorism will continue to be acting in Iraq against the Iraqi people unless the political landscape is corrected and the political process is corrected and it becomes an inclusive political process and non-sectarian institution built in Iraq.“ – Ayad Allawi, head of the Iraqiya parliamentary bloc |
It was Iraq’s deadliest day in months. More than a dozen explosions ripped through Baghdad on Thursday killing at least 60 and injuring nearly 200.
The all too familiar scenes came days after the last US troops withdrew from Iraq, formally ending a nearly decade-long military occupation.
The latest wave of bombings comes at a time of new political crisis and widening sectarian division, the fragile governing alliance between Sunni Shia and Kurds is close to disintegration after an arrest warrant was issued for the country’s Sunni vice-president who has sought sanctuary in the Kurdish north.
Ayad Allawi, the head of the Iraqiya parliamentary bloc, insists the government itself is in part to blame for the attacks.
Where is the sovereign, stable and self reliant Iraq, the US said it helped build in the last decade? Can the system of power-sharing hold amidst the growing sectarian divide? And is it this system the bombers are attempting to destroy?
Inside Story, with presenter Mike Hanna, discusses with guests: Anas al-Tikriti, the chief-executive of the Cordoba Foundation, an independent and public relations organisation; James Denselow, a Middle East analyst at King’s College London; and Saad al-Muttalabi, a member of the Prime Minister’s State of Law coalition in Iraq.
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“The government must own up responsibility for failing to protect the Iraqi people … [the arrest warrant for Tariq al-Hashemi] is a political avalanche, especially as it happens merely hours after the departure of the US forces. To make this seem as though everything is business as usual, I think is extremely erroneous, very, very dangerous, I think Iraq faces a crisis, a catastrophe, political partnership is at an end.” Anas al-Tikriti, chief executive of the Cordoba Foundation |