MOSCOW-BAGHDAD, October 6 (RIA Novosti) - Iraqi Vice President Ayad Allawi told RT television Monday that Arab states were able to cope with the Islamic State (IS) threat on their own, without resorting to US help.
"I personally rely on an Arab anti-IS coalition, rather than an international one. Moreover, I rely on Iraq's own capabilities. The problem of IS requires a political solution, apart from a military one. We must find the reasons for IS emergence and eliminate them," Allawi told the Russian news channel.
He stressed that Arab states and Washington had totally different approaches to handling the IS insurgency in the Middle East.
"The US prefers the military solution, but this does not concern us. As the regions inhabitants, we must look for our own solutions, and only when we find them, we will be able to turn to the international community, while also preserving our sovereignty and national dignity," the Iraqi vice president emphasized.
Allawi said that Arab nations had a good chance of rolling the IS back within a short period of time when acting together.
"I don't think it will take months or years to resolve the IS problem – it is a clear, blatant and totally incorrect overstatement," he added.
Allawi also told RT he doubted that "the United States realizes it has made many mistakes, starting from the first days of [Iraq's] occupation and up until the present day."
"The problem is that Iraqis must first grasp the necessity of abolishing or amending various laws. Laws are there to serve the needs of the Iraqi people," the vice president stressed, adding the new laws had to pursue clear, peaceful objectives and protect the rights of all people in the country.
"I don't think this requires America's interference," Allawi noted.
Northern and western Iraq found itself under a sudden siege of radical IS forces in summer 2014 when the IS launched a series of successful attacks from Syrian territory, prompting the US to conduct several air campaigns on IS targets in Iraq starting in August.
Following the surge of IS violence in the occupied territories, US President Barack Obama announced his decision to form an international anti-IS coalition on September 10. Washington also extended its anti-IS operation into Syria, while continuing airstrikes against the group's targets in Iraq. Obama said the United States would arm and equip Kurds, Iraqis and Syria's moderate opposition in an effort to eradicate the IS.
