GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) slams U.S. Senate plan to divide Iraq

[sabra]

Source: Voice of Iraq

Baghdad, Sept 28, (VOI)- The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Friday condemned a US Senate non-binding resolution to divide Iraq into three entities, saying it would complicate matters further in the war-ravaged country.

“Such dividing plans would add new complications to the already difficult Iraqi situation," GCC chief Abdul Rahman al-Attiyah said in a statement.
The GCC groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
The chief of the oil-rich bloc warned that the non-binding proposal to divide Iraq which was passed by the US Senate on Wednesday would also have a "detrimental impact" on regional and international stability.

"Instead of calling for division, the causes that led to the current situation should be addressed. These include the (US-led) occupation, the sectarian and ethnic quota system, absence of law and security and the paralyzed administration," he said.

The Senate, at a late hour on Wednesday, approved, with 75 votes for and 23 against, a "non-binding" draft resolution envisaging the division of Iraq into three Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni entities, with a federal government in Baghdad undertaking border security and oil proceed management.

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/28/iraq/main3306852.shtml

Iraq PM: Senate Proposal A "Catastrophe"
Prime Minister Sharply Rejects Government Decentralization Plan Pushed By Biden, Others

(CBS/AP) Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Friday rejected a U.S. Senate proposal calling for the decentralization of Iraq's government and giving more control to the country's ethnically divided regions, calling it a "catastrophe."

The measure, whose primary sponsors included presidential hopeful Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., calls for Iraq to be divided into federal regions for the country's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities in a power-sharing agreement similar to Bosnia in the 1990s.

In his first comments since the measure passed Wednesday, al-Maliki strongly rejected the idea, echoing the earlier sentiments of his country's vice president.

"It is an Iraqi affair dealing with Iraqis," he told The Associated Press while on a return flight to Baghdad after appearing at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. "Iraqis are eager for Iraq's unity. ... Dividing Iraq is a problem and a decision like that would be a catastrophe."