Allawi rises again as Iraq counts cost of insurgency

Six weeks ago, Eyad Allawi's political career seemed to be over. The man installed last year by America and Britain as Iraq's interim prime minister enjoyed only lukewarm support and was soundly defeated in last January's elections.

"When we were in power we had a programme that looked beyond elections,'' Allawi told The Daily Telegraph in his first interview with a European newspaper since standing down. "Security was better in our time, electricity was better and services were improving. The government has failed in these respects. But we know we have the experience in all these areas to improve things.''

Iraq's gunmen and suicide bombers, who at first appeared to have been cowed by the powerful turn-out in the elections, have made a vicious return since the installation of the new prime minister, Ebrahim Al Jaafari, who heads a Shiite-dominated religious coalition.

Backed by conservative Shiite clerics, Al Jaafari's government has also been accused of fostering sectarian divisions with the minority Sunni Arab community. There are mutterings too about its apparent cosy relationship with old foe Iran.

All that has combined in Allawi's favour. In the capital, many ordinary Iraqis who once viewed him with distaste speak wistfully of a bygone era.

"I made the biggest mistake not voting for Allawi,'' said Abdul Janabi, a Shiite mechanic. "He was a strong leader. We need someone with authority. Things are much worse now.''

Allawi declined to join the new transitional government, but has not given up on political life. An extended tour of the Middle East has been followed by intense negotiations to create the new multi-ethnic secular alliance ahead of new general elections scheduled for December. However, he claims he has not yet decided whether to run.

Allawi, a Shiite who was a member of the Baath party but later fell out with Saddam Hussain, has been in contact with an intriguing group of Iraqi political figures.

These include lieutenants of the fiery young Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, who has a substantial following among poor Shiite and twice rose up against US troops.

A number of Sunni Arab clerics and tribal leaders are also keen to establish ties, Allawi said.

If he is successful, Allawi would create a bloc that could genuinely be described as nationalist a first for post-Saddam Iraq and one, he insists, that would be secular despite its strange bedfellows.

"We respect religion but it should not be the dominant political feature in the country,'' he said.

Unity is certainly needed at the moment. Iraq seems more polarised along sectarian lines than ever before.

For the first time in decades, the once oppressed Shiite majority is in power. Most in Al Jaafari's bloc have shown restraint, but some militias linked to his government are accused of co-ordinating the murders of Sunni Arab clerics.

Political philosophy

Reprisal killings of leading Shiite figures have followed, leading to whispers of civil war.

Allawi's political philosophy may well appeal to the urban elite in Baghdad, but it is less clear whether the rest of the country is already tiring of religious government.

One major handicap is his alleged support for members of Saddam's Baath party and even the insurgents. He has been frequently and vocally denounced as a "protector of Baathist thugs'' during sessions of the new parliament.

Allawi, who left the Baath party in the 1970s and later survived assassination attempts ordered from within its ranks, says he has only brought mid-level ex-Baathists into the security forces and the civil service. He makes no apologies for that and decries an ongoing purge since he left government as a "witch hunt''.

"The majority of Baathists had to join the party to survive,'' he said. "Should you punish every single one?''

Allawi's greatest weapon is his personality and that could ultimately override such questions. He could not be more different from Al Jaafari, the mild-mannered and enigmatic academic who served as his deputy.

The former prime minister is unyielding, belligerent some have said almost thuggish.

Yet many Iraqis say it is those slightly dictatorial tendencies that a successful leader in so diverse a country needs to have.

"In the last election I voted for Allawi twice,'' said a Sunni insurgent sympathiser from Fallujah who might not yet entirely have grasped the democratic concept of one man, one vote.

"At the next election I will vote for him 10 or 11 times.''

- The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2005