Iyad Allawi, leader of the secular Iraqiya bloc, said the planned new government was not the power-sharing government that it had been billed as.
“The formula for power sharing has been distorted and the issue of devolution has been distorted so I am not sure whether a coherent government (can be formed),” he told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
“Still we have some time to discuss issues and to see if this will happen or not,” he added. When asked if the government could last long, he said: “No.”
He said he would not join a new cabinet. “I am not going to be part, in any case, of the council of ministers. It is not currently suggested or offered or the Iraqiya list want me to be a member.”
Allawi said he had not decided whether to accept a new senior new role offered to him, presumably the head of a yet-to-be-created policy council.
This position was created for him as means of breaking the political deadlock between the Sunni, majority Shiite and Kurdish blocs that has left Iraq without a government for months.
However, Allawi downplayed the walk-out from parliament by members of his bloc last week, saying the disagreements behind it had been settled. He said he would not return to Baghdad for the opening of parliament on Nov. 21.
Allawi said he was in London for his daughter’s wedding. Some Iraqiya lawmakers said they were surprised he had left Iraq at this time and that he had not told them he was going.
Other Iraqiya lawmakers said Allawi’s recent harsh rhetoric regarding the new government was meant to pressure Nuri Al-Maliki, who he said he expected to become prime minister, into keeping his promises.
Iraq needs a stable government to rebuild infrastructure and exploit its vast oil wealth as violence ebbs, seven years after the US-led invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
