Iraqi Vice President Iyad Allawi claimed on Friday that Iran’s support for Shia groups in Iraq is obstructing efforts to bridge the sectarian divide ahead of a parliamentary election next year. Iraqi leaders hope to restore control over all Iraqi territory, defeating the self-styled Islamic State, before an election due by the middle of next year. “Iran has been interfering even in the decision [making process] of the Iraqi people,” he alleged in an interview with Reuters. “We don’t want an election based on sectarianism, we want an inclusive political process... We hope that the Iraqis would choose themselves without any involvement by any foreign power.” Allawi, a secular Shia politician who has supporters among some Sunnis, was in Cairo to meet Egyptian leaders including President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for discussions about oil and the conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Libya. Tehran denies interfering in Iraqi politics, saying the military assistance it provides to paramilitary groups is meant to help defeat IS, the extremist insurgents who declared a “caliphate” over parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014. Allawi has previously accused Tehran of blocking his bid to become prime minister in the 2010 elections.
