BAGHDAD, Sept 28 (Agencies) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Friday
a U.S. Senate resolution calling for the creation of separate Sunni, Shi'ite and
Kurdish federal regions in Iraq would be a disaster for his country.
"They should stand by Iraq to solidify its unity and its sovereignty," Maliki
told Iraqi state television on his flight back from the United Nations General
Assembly.
"They shouldn't be proposing its division. That could be a disaster not just for
Iraq but for the region."
Maliki also called on the Iraqi parliament to meet and respond formally to the
non-binding resolution, passed by the Senate on Wednesday, which called for the
creation of "a federal system of government and ... federal regions".
Iraq's northern Kurdish region already enjoys significant autonomy from Baghdad,
with a separate Kurdish parliament. But Sunni Arabs and some Shi'ites oppose
greater federalism which they see as a step towards dividing Iraq.
The Senate resolution urged U.S. President George W. Bush to seek international
support for such a political settlement and convene a conference with Iraqis to
help them reach it.
"We reject this decision," Maliki said.
A representative of Shia leader and cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on
Friday called on politicians and political and religious entities not to respond
to “any project encompassing a division of Iraq a sectarian or religious basis.”
Sheikh Abdul-Hadi al-Karbalaa told hundreds of Shia worshippers at Imam Hussein
mosque in Karbala: “It is a mistake to think that this American project will
reduce chaos in Iraq.”
“On the contrary, this will lead to more struggles and the spread of disarray
even in some neighbouring countries,” he said.
“It is for the benefit of the Iraqi people from all sects and social classes to
live within a unified Iraq ... where everybody joins forces to get over the
circle of violence and instability that we are going through,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) condemned Thursday the
proposed resolution, saying that anyone who backed it would be “a traitor of the
nation and faith.”
“The Congress’ suggestion of the establishment of federal entities under the
pretext of halting sectarian violence is not shocking because it was one of the
objectives behind the (US) invasion of Iraq,” an AMS statement said.
According to the Sunni clerics, the resolution, “meets the needs of a wing that
is well known inside the incumbent US administration and the Zionist lobby it
supports.”
They further accused US Senator Joseph Biden and his group who forwarded the
draft of being “loyal to this (Zionist) lobby.”
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hushyar Zebari said the Iraqi constitution envisioned a
united Iraq, not one divided into Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite states.
