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US Senate calls for Iraq's partition
By DPA
09/26/07 "DPA" --- -- US lawmakers voted Wednesday to split Iraq
into a loose federation of sectarian-based regions and urged
President George W Bush to press Iraqi leaders to agree.
More than 20 Republicans joined Democrats to pass the
non-binding measure in the Senate, 75-23, showing frustration in
both parties about Bush's war policy and lagging national
reconciliation in Iraq.
Supporters of Iraqi partition believe it would let Shia, Sunni
and Kurdish factions settle their differences and make it easier
for US troops eventually to return home.
But the measure, attached to the 2008 defence budget, runs
against US administration policy to keep Iraq united and would
likely face a veto if it reached Bush's desk.
The proposal to breaking up Iraq into decentralized regions came
from Senator Joseph Biden, who heads the chamber's foreign
relations committee and is running for the 2008 Democratic Party
presidential nomination.
Biden has long championed the federal plan, saying it would give
Iraq's main groups "breathing room in their own regions" and
speed up a US troop withdrawal.
But partition would raise concern in neighbouring Turkey, which
is fighting a Kurdish separatist movement and would be wary of
broader autonomy for Iraqi Kurds across the border.
Sunni-led Saudi Arabia would likely fear a further rise in
Iranian influence over Iraq if Iraqi Shiites controlled their
own mini-state.
A key Republican supporter and presidential candidate, Senator
Sam Brownback, has urged Bush to send a high-level envoy to Iraq
"to get these people in a room to cut the deal to get different
states, where you have the power mostly residing in the states."
Biden's amendment calls for the US government to work for a
"political settlement based on the creation of federal regions
within a united Iraq."
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