Former Iraqi PM Ayad Allawi: Iran Does Not Want Iraq To Have a Strong Army; The Americans Will Not Leave Iraq; The Int’l Coalition, Not Iran, Defeated ISIS

Ayad Allawi, a senior Iraqi political figure who served as Iraq's interim Prime Minister from 2004 to 2005, said in a March 12, 2020 interview on Asia TV (Iraq) that conflict in the region is going to escalate, that Iraq is going to lose as a result, and that the U.S. is going to gain. He also said that Iran has been working to prevent Iraq from becoming powerful and from having a strong army and that people shouldn't listen to Shi'ite groups that say that Iran helped defeat ISIS. He pointed out that almost none of the planes that stopped ISIS had been Islamic or Arab.

Ayad Allawi: "I believe that things will escalate, and Iraq will be the greatest loser."

Interviewer: "And who stands to gain? And who stands to gain?"

Ayad Allawi: "America. Look, America is going to put its missiles in Iraq whether Iraq likes it or not."

Interviewer: "By hook or by crook."

Ayad Allawi: "Yes. The government invited the coalition..."

Interviewer: "It is stubborn – the more it is beaten, the more it increases its influence."

Ayad Allawi: "The international coalition says that the Iraqi government invited them. I wasn't the one who invited them..."

Interviewer: "Will these strikes hasten the departure of the American and foreign forces from Iraq, or will the opposite take place?"

Ayad Allawi: "The opposite will take place. They won't leave. They are going to stay. The American forces will stay."

Interviewer: "If the resistance forces say..."

Ayad Allawi: "If the Iraqi army was strong and was permitted [to act] without this nonsense..."

Interviewer: "Who is it that prevented us from having a strong army?"

Ayad Allawi: "Iran."

Interviewer: "Iran?"

Ayad Allawi: "Yes."

Interviewer: "How come?"

Ayad Allawi: "It doesn't want Iraq to have a strong army. It hates the Iraqi army. It is vengeful against it. Wasn't it the Iraqi army that broke Iran in the eight-year war?"

Interviewer: "So Iran doesn't want Iraq to have a strong army?"

Ayad Allawi: "Of course not."

Interviewer: "But it supported Iraq in its war against ISIS."

Ayad Allawi: "Who did?"

Interviewer: "Iran."

Ayad Allawi: "Really?"

Interviewer: "All the Shi'ite political forces say that Iran gave us unlimited support in the war against ISIS."

Ayad Allawi: "With what? Planes?"

Interviewer: "With weapons."

Ayad Allawi: "Why are we buying this talk? The air force that ISIS was foreign. It was neither Islamic nor Arab – with the exception of Jordan, which was a part of the effort. What [the Shi'ite groups] are saying is not true. Iran does not want Iraq to be strong... I have spoken with militia leaders from the PMU. They told me: 'We are Iraq's ideological army.'"

Interviewer: "This is how they described it."

Ayad Allawi: "Right."

Interviewer: "'Iraq's ideological army.'"

Ayad Allawi: "Yes."