Official Website of Ahrar Party

Ayad Jamal Aldin: "National reconciliation is the only option for Iraqis" - Al Arab Online

The Iraqi MP and leader of Ahrar party says for Alarab online:

National reconciliation is the only option for Iraqis


London – Alarab Online –Nadia Al-Turkey , Ayad Jamal Aldin Iraqi politician now heads (Ahrar Gathering) cluster, in the Iraqi parliament, known for his liberalism, although he is a committed Shiite, is against the clerical rule in public, and calls for a secular state and says " many of the clergy agrees with him, especially in Najaf, but they do not show it on the media. "

Joined the Iraqia List headed by Dr. Ayad Allawi, which put secular slogans. Despite his constant attack on the system of clerical rule, and the Iranian intervention in Iraq, but he will not attack and criticize the American occupation forces nor to the U.S. policy in Iraq.

"The Arabs Online:" met with Ayad Jamal Aldin in London to mark his visit in preparation for the upcoming elections and we had the following dialogue:

Q: What are the reasons for your visit to London now?

- There are large and deep rooted Iraqi expatriate community in London and this is what makes Britain a key electoral arena targeted by many of the political forces to attract supporters.

Q: Is this visit comes within the framework of the beginning of the election campaign?

- The election campaigns did not start officially, but in fact they started and this visit can be considered for checking positions and to connect with Iraqis living in London. We want one Iraq, not a united one.

*Q: You are now leading Ahrar Gathering in the Parliament, what are your goals, and where do you put yourself among the other blocks?

- Our goals are consistent with the desire of our people, we want one Iraq, not united, and the difference between both terms is essential, the holders of the united Iraq slogan say that Iraq is dismantled they put it together, but the desire of Iraqis is something else, they see one Iraq and we are against the dismantling of Iraq, we do not want a religious or ethnic blocs, we do not want Shiitestan Kurdistan.

I am a believer in different social components in Iraq, and this is a fact and the most beautiful picture in Iraq, but what unacceptable for me is to build the political forces on the basis of social differences.

I look at the parties exactly like the football teams, it is a disaster for Iraq to have a Shiite football team, another one Sunni or Turkmen, thus the football stadiums will be a field for bloody war.

Just as football teams are formed away from the ethnic and sectarian groupings, I am with one team composed of different social backgrounds and this team will be having fans from different social backgrounds.

We say that political force should be national, and we consider rising slogans is a crime against the Iraqi people, and the political powers must compete according to their political not ethnic programs. I think this is the desire of the Iraqi people.

Q: Following the agreement on the electoral law and remove the obstacle for processing the legislative elections on the seventh of March, where is Iraq heading?

- All elections in the world should have the necessary circumstances and conditions available to be successful, in the beginning, we must have agreed constitution. Iraq's current constitution is essentially non-agreed and has gaps are causing the crisis, where there is one of the transitional articles obligates the Iraqi government to introduce the amendments in the first four months of its mandate, and four years now passed we have not seen any change. The current Constitution with its transitional articles says that Maliki's government has to be committed for making a census where we have no one since 1977, this has not yet done despite the Planning Minister had expressed his willingness to undertake this process, but the political forces have prevented this and I consider them the feudalism political forces. It is not suitable for the environment of financial corruption to do this census for many purposes, such as to avoid accountability.

We must provide an agreed constitution in Iraq, a census and a law of the parties.

Reconciliation with Baathists is the solution to get Iraq out of its current situation.

Q: The bloody attacks that prevailed in Iraq in recent months, the latest was the bombings of the bloody Tuesday, who is stand behind them in your opinion? Are they the militias rampant in the institutions of the government? Al-Qaeda? Or "Baathists" as Maliki's government says?

- Al-Qaeda targets people when there are large human populations we will have a suicide bombing, this is the hallmark of al-Qaeda. Blasts targeting the state institutions is undoubtedly carry a political message, they are addressed violence acts and carry a political message, and through the message you should know the sender, and the sender here is the Baath Party and I am convinced of this, but the question is how to deal with this problem?

According to my opinion, there are only two ways, first one is to wipe out the Baathists. The second one is the reconciliation.

Q: What is the easier way in the current situation of Iraq?

- Currently the elimination of the Baath is impossible politically, legally and socially, the second option remains ahead of us, the national reconciliation.

The political forces currently ruling Iraq do not want the reconciliation, they are convinced of the sectarian ethnic quotas system, and there is no room for the Baath Party with this system, you cannot classify Baath Party in such a division, does it come with the Shiites? Or with the Sunnis?.

The political feudalism in power does not want national reconciliation.

On the other hand, the Baath is also exterminating party, they do not believe in listening to other opinions, they ruled for 35 years with a policy says: I am your top Lord.

Q: According to your declarations now, it seems that the reconciliation is an impossible project.

- I am the owner the creator of reconciliation, and there is no impossible project in politics,I call for reconciliation with Baathists who have their hands contaminated with blood and not with a peaceful Baathist, since we have no problem with him.

Q: Will they accept a dialogue with you?

- They will be forced to, if they don’t accept it today then tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, they do that because there is no other way for them, but if they incline to peace today is better than tomorrow in order to stop shedding Iraqi blood, the waste of Iraqi funds and the deterioration of the political and social conditions that we suffer. Our strategies for Ahrar Gathering are reconciliation, security and reconstruction, each one of them leads to the other so the basic is the reconciliation that will lead to security and then to the reconstruction.

Iraqis want an immediate reconstruction of schools, hospitals and houses, but this is not possible only with security, there is no company willing to build without security and no security without reconciliation, the armies of all the world cannot provide security unless there is social reconciliation.

Q: How do you interpret the warning of the U.S. forces that the levels of violence can return to heaviest levels, and in return their silence on the investigation into the recent bombings?

- Violence will remain now and will continue until after the election unless there is a national reconciliation and this is obvious and clear to anyone monitoring Iraqi structure.

Investigations may lead to know the offender, and even after that there is no solution but the reconciliation. America is defeated in Iraq by Iran and not by the resistance.