BAGHDAD, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- The former interim prime minister of Iraq said his political allies would return to the government once the Shiite prime minister embraces open dialogue.
Members of Iraqiya, a Sunni-backed political movement led by former interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, are boycotting the country's legislative assembly following a series of political flare-ups that erupted after U.S. forces left the country in December.
Allawi told al-Jazeera his movement would return once Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki agreed to share power under the terms of a 2010 deal that ended a long political stalemate.
"Once we see positive steps taken by the government to reduce the tension, to embark on dialogue and to revert back to the agreement of power sharing, then of course we will reciprocate," he said.
Maliki's critics accuse him of leading Iraq like a dictator. Some members of Iraqiya were initially blocked from participating in the government because of ties to the deposed Baath Party.
"The Iraqiya constituencies have been targeted -- widespread arrests, torture, intimidation, expulsions -- and then this moved into targeting the leaders of Iraqiya accusing them in the media of doing wrong things," said Allawi.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said last week from Turkey that it was "very much" in the U.S. government's interest to do "everything we can" to help Iraq prevent the political crisis from turning into a sectarian war.
