Yawer warns against rise of 'Iraqi Hitler'

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Iraqi interim President Ghazi al-Yawer warned that rampant insecurity and instability in Iraq could lead to the rise of an Iraqi-style Hitler.

Speaking in an interview published Monday in the Saudi daily al-Sharq al-Awsat, monitored in Beirut, Yawer cautioned that if Iraqi citizens continued to be humiliated and insulted the way they are at present, "This could in the long term create an environment in which an Iraqi Hitler could emerge like the one created by the defeat of Germany and the humiliation of Germans in World War I."

He said that security in Iraq "could only be procured by Iraqis themselves," through the speedy reconstruction of Iraq's disbanded army and security forces.

Yawar, largely a ceremonial president, also urged Iraq's neighbors to help curb violence in the war-torn country, accusing Syria and Iran of providing logistics and financial support to insurgents.

He warned that the fire in Iraq will spill out to its neighbors unless they acted quickly put it out, "not only for the sake of your neighbor but also so that you are not forced to put it out in your own home when it spreads there."

Yawer, a Sunni Muslim, rejected suggestions to postpone Iraq's legislative elections scheduled by the end of January saying "that will give terrorists the impression that they have won."