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| Iraq | |
| Iyad Allawi unveils alliance to fight election | |
| 2010-01-17 | |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Iraq's former pro-Western prime minister Iyad Allawi on Saturday unveiled a broad secular alliance of candidates to contest the country's general election on March 7. Allawi, a Shiite politician who in exile mounted an opposition movement against Saddam Hussein, was provisionally appointed by Washington as Iraq's first premier after the dictator's ouster in the U.S.-led invasion of 2003. He held the post for just under a year.
"We are a national political entity, committed to serving all Iraqis and we call on them to join us," Rafa al-Essawi, the country's Sunni deputy prime minister, told hundreds of people at a glitzy Baghdad ceremony. Allawi did not speak at the gathering where candidates for his Al-Iraqiya Alliance were unveiled but he was flanked by Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi who fired an opening verbal salvo at Maliki. "He (Maliki) has failed to create a state of citizens to replace a state of (religious) communities," Hashemi told candidates and onlookers at the launch ceremony held at Al-Rasheed Hotel. The prominent Sunni lawmaker Saleh al-Mutlak, who has been banned from competing in the March poll for alleged links to Saddam's former regime, is also a member of Allawi's alliance and was present at the ceremony. | |
| Posted by:Fred |