Iraq's Shiites and Sunnis reject US partition idea

[seafan]

Source: Channel NewsAsia

BAGHDAD : Shiite and Sunni figures in Iraq dismissed Saturday a US Senate plan to split Iraq along ethnic and religious lines, while the Kurds welcomed it as the "only viable solution" to the present chaos.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said upon his return from the United States that the idea being floated there by a US senator and presidential hopeful would "be a catastrophe not only in Iraq but also on the region."
"It is Iraqis who decide and they are keen to maintain the unity of their country," Maliki told state-run Al-Iraqiya television.

.....

Moqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric who commands the largest single bloc in parliament and boasts a powerful militia known as the Mahdi Army, said the proposal demonstrated "flagrant interference in Iraq's internal affairs."
"We reject this decision chapter and verse and demand the Iraqi government reject it," he said in a statement issued by his office.

The leading Sunni authority in Iraq, the Ulema Council -- also known as the Committee of Muslim Scholars -- joined the Shiite condemnation, saying the idea "uses the pretext of avoiding violence to impose the division of Iraq."

This division is "one of the main objectives of American occupation," the council said, calling on Iraqis to reject it.

Read more: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/302931/1/.html

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Not only do the Iraqis resist George W. Bush's greed-driven oil production sharing agreements, but now they must resist outsiders' efforts to carve up their country.


No outside country or entity has any right to take control of Iraq, its resources or its governance.

[Benhurst]

1. As if it is any of our God-damned business. Shame on the U.S. Senate.

[Dr.Phool]

2. They have a lot of nerve!!!

They let the Brits carve up their borders, and they won't let us? After all we've done for them?

I'm offended.

:sarcasm:

As if it's necessary.

[jeff30997]

3. Lol!

Good point.

[IndianaGreen]

4. I am not the only DUer that has said that neither the Sunnis nor the Shias will let the Kurds

secede from Iraq. The Kurds have thrown their lot with the US, and they have won no friends in the region.

[EFerrari]

5. This article misrepresents Biden's idea which

isn't partition at all.

I guess BushCo doesn't want a solution.

[calteacherguy]

6. No surprise there. We can't impose the Biden plan, or any plan. nt

[dailykoff]

7. They're not dumb.

But we sure seem to be.

[ohio2007]

8. Let the Iraqi's have it their way

seems the love for each other would be lost if the current situation was changed with such drastic measures