You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker.

Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. I do hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Saka.

My guest today is an Iraqi politician who has seen his hopes for the rejuvenation of his country

in the post-Saddam era comprehensively dashed. Ayad Alawi was exiled during the Saddam

dictatorship. He returned after the U.S. military invasion and has since served as interim prime

minister and more recently as

vice president. In a country where politics has increasingly come to be defined by sectarian

affiliation, a Lawi is unusual, a Shia politician who favors secular politics and has strong

links to Sunni and Kurdish parties.

In recent months, Iraqi politics has been marked by instability and popular protest, and now

the country is being dragged deep into the spiraling conflict between Washington and Tehran.

America's assassination of Iran's top general,

Qasem Soleimani, is forcing Iraqis to pick sides in a fight which could spell disaster for their

country. So what can, what should the Baghdad government do? Well, Ayyad Ali joins me now.

Welcome to Hard Talk.

We talk to you in the wake of the dramatic events that include, of course, the assassination

of Qasim Soleimani.

Did you see it coming?

Well, I saw things escalating in fact,

and I saw very clearly that there was serious threats from the United States

based on what has happened to some of their bases in Iraq

...