Talabani Supports
Proposal to Divide Iraq Into Three Regions
By Catherine Larkin
Oct 7, 2007 (Bloomberg) -- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani endorsed a plan
gaining support in the U.S. Congress to divide Iraq along ethnic lines into
three separate regions under a limited central government.
Talabani, a Kurd, said a so-called soft partition of Iraq would prevent civil
war among the country's Shiite and Sunni Muslims and Kurds.
The U.S. Senate voted 75-23 in favor of a non-binding resolution supporting
establishment of such a federal system in Iraq. The idea has been championed by
Democratic Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware and the resolution, approved Sept.
26, was co- sponsored by Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas. Both
lawmakers are seeking the presidential nomination of their parties.
``I think the resolution passed by the Senate is a very good one,'' Talabani
said today on CNN's ``Late Edition'' program. ``It is insisting on the unity of
Iraq, of the security of Iraq, of the prosperity of Iraq, of national
reconciliation and asking our neighbors not to interfere in the internal affairs
of Iraq.''
The plan calls for the central government to handle national security and
distribution of the country's oil revenue among the three regions. The Iraqi
government has been struggling to pass a national law governing how such
distributions will be done.
The Bush administration and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki, a Shiite
Muslim, have expressed opposition to any move to split up the country. Regional
officials in Kurdistan have been criticized by the current Iraqi government for
signing independent agreements with companies for oil exploration and
production.
Talabani was in Washington last week for a meeting with President George W. Bush
and members of Congress. The Iraqi leader also said he expected that the
country's army will be able to take over enough security duty so that the U.S.
may be able to withdraw more than 100,000 of its troops ``by the end of next
year.'' The U.S. currently has about 165,000 troops in Iraq.
