Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Friday rejected a US Senate resolution calling for the division of Iraq into autonomous Shia, Sunni and Kurdish regions. Mr al-Maliki argued that his country’s political structure “is an Iraqi affair”.

Division, he stated on board his flight en route to Baghdad after addressing the General Assembly in New York, “would be a catastrophe”.  Shia Vice President Adel Abdel-Mahdi and Liwa Semeism, a spokesman of rebel Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr had previously condemned the resolution. Semeism also demanded that “the Iraqi government stands against any such a project and condemn it officially.

Interference

Such a decision does not represent the aspirations of all Iraqis and is considered interference in Iraq’s internal affairs”. Al-Maliki’s statement may be in response to the Sadrists’ insistence on an official response.

Al-Maliki’s Dawa party and the Sadrists oppose the establishment of semi-autonomous regions. Although Abdel-Mahdi’s Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council is the sole proponent of a nine-province Shia region in the south to match the Kurd region in the north, he may have bowed to the popular will by expressing his opposition to the Senate plan.

Abdel-Mahdi is one of the Shia candidates for the position of premier if Al-Maliki falls and would not like to antagonise the majority of Iraqis.

The non-binding measure, sponsored by Democrat presidential candidate Joseph Biden, was adopted by a vote of 75 to 23 in the upper house with the backing of 26 Republicans as well as presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.

While decentralisation is laid down in Iraq’s post-war constitution and the existing semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the north has been accepted by Sunnis and Shias, a majority of Iraqis oppose the creation of Shia and Sunni regions in the south and centre.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — comprising Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Bahrain — and Yemen also rejected the Senate plan, seen as a means to partition of the country.

GCC Secretary General Abdurahman al-Attiyah stated, “Instead of calling for division, the problems that produced the current situation should be addressed.

These include the occupation, the sectarian and ethnic quota system, the absence of law and security, and the paralysed administration”.

A Yemeni foreign office spokesman called the resolution blatant interference in Iraq’s domestic affairs. Other Arab governments are certain to join in condemnation.