Press TV has conducted an interview with Sa’ad al-Muttalibi, from the State of Law Coalition, to discuss Iraqi military’s counteroffensive operations against ISIL militants linked to al-Qaeda in the city of Mosul.

Press TV: We were speaking earlier with our guest in Beirut and he was saying that Mr. Maliki himself is also to blame. A lot of people have been saying that. What do you think about the way Mr. Maliki has dealt with the problem and how responsible he could be in the current crisis?

Muttalibi: I think with the matter of blaming or diverting the blame from… ISIL or ISIS and diverting the blame to the Iraqi Prime Minister I think this is … a plot or a conspiracy against Iraq.

There are political entities and media entities from the West in particular and the United States trying to show that it was the Iraqi constitution and the Iraqi elected government behind the failure; where all evidence indicate that the Baath party with al-Qaeda and Daesh and with the collaboration of certain offices from Mosul area, they were part and the tool for allowing Daash to enter.

The people of Daash who entered Mosul did not exceed a few hundred fighters and the problem was with the fifty thousand Iraqi local police who constituted the local police of Mosul, they took off their military or the police uniform and put on the Daesh or the ISIL uniform.

So, the matter of diverting this blame from the original conspirators into the elected government, I think this part of the world conspiracy against Iraq.

Press TV: We are also hearing, at least some of the media saying that the ISIL or these groups have support, for instance, among parts of the Sunni population. Is that something that you can confirm?

Muttalibi: Definitely. ISIL has, there is an incubation environment, an environment in north Iraq where the local people feel some type of belonging to that terrorist group because it is, historically, we have to go back. The Sunnis after long losing power in 2003, they didn’t believe… historical right into governing Iraq. It is the formation of former Iraq in 1921 by the British government installing a Sunni…

So, the Sunnis believe that they have the right to govern Iraq regardless of the result of the election. Therefore, we see this kind of collaboration or assistance provided to the ISIL, of course, we cannot forget the Baath party and their full support to Daesh.

Now, what is turning the tide, the millions of Iraqis that have volunteered, youth Iraqis volunteered to fight, and when I say millions I am not exaggerating. We have the whole of the south, the middle of the Iraq and the south, the whole of that is rising to fight al-Qaeda.

The information that I’ve received from the battle, a tremendous amount of progress has been made. Daesh is on the retreat, ISIL is on the retreat alongside with other terrorist organizations that are working there. They will be driven back to Mosul.

Mr. Maliki, the Prime Minister, is in Samarra now, leading the operations himself from Salahuddin and form Salahuddin which is the city of Tikrit was there, leading the battle from Salahuddin and heading towards the liberation of Mosul.

Naturally, there were some problems on the beginning but now the Iraqi forces are moving at a steady pace and al-Qaeda is being destroyed base after base.