ISTANBUL, Turkey—Former Nineveh governor says that several countries have expressed support for the creation of a Sunni alliance in Iraq in order to enter with force the country’s political process, warning in the meantime against militia groups dominating next year’s general elections.

Athil al-Nujaifi, former governor of Nineveh and now head of the Lil-Iraqi Mutahudon (United for Iraq) said at a conference in Istanbul on Wednesday that Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Turkey have thrown their weight behind the establishment of a Sunni alliance.

Al-Nujaifi explained that those four countries have agreed to set aside their differences on the issue of Iraq.

He said that the efforts are being in Turkey.

Al-Nujaifi who fled Mosul when ISIS militants took his city in June 2014 said that Turkey has been told not to work with Iraq’s Sunnis alone and involve the Arab states as well in the case, especially the three above mentioned countries.

These countries are engaged in talking to 25 major Sunni figures from Iraq, according to al-Nujaifi, 10 of them known leaders and officials.

Al-Nujaifi said that though elections have been set for 2018 in Iraq there might be efforts to postpone them “for fear of militia groups dominating the process.”

“If that happens then Maliki, Amiri or Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis will come to power and the situation in Iraq will take a whole new direction,” al-Nujaifi said, warning against three major Shiite leaders who have strong control over various militia groups.

Al-Nujaifi said that that the Sunnis support the elections but believed that unless the United States does something to bring them under government control Abadi may be compelled to postpone the vote.

The former Nineveh governor said that if the Shiites run in the elections on one list then the Sunnis too will have to do the same, adding that “it is better if we all run on separate lists because we want a nonsectarian process."