Iraq's former prime minister Iyad Allawi, who scored a surprise win in the recent general election, warned today that the country risks descending into a new sectarian war, with feuding politicians attempting to sideline his supporters and the international community standing idly by.
In an interview with the Guardian Allawi said that since the bitterly contested 7 March election, in which his Iraqiya party list won 91 seats, political groups had abandoned efforts to build a united government and were regressing into sectarianism, encouraged by Iran.
Allawi, who led the country for nine turbulent months from early 2004 as a US-appointed transitional prime minister, also warned that unless America and its allies safeguarded Iraq's nascent democracy, renewed conflict could spread around the region.
"This conflict will not remain within the borders of Iraq," he said. "It will spill over and it has the potential to reach the world at large, not just neighbouring countries. Now Iraq is at centre stage in the region. But it is boiling with problems, it is stagnant and it can go either way.
"I feel that we are not done and that the international community has failed this country."