Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Friday dismissed a U.S. Senate proposal calling for the decentralization of Iraq's government and giving more control to the country's ethnically divided regions, terming it a "catastrophe." The measure calls for Iraq to be divided into federal regions for the country's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities in a power-sharing agreement.
In his first comments since the measure passed Wednesday, al-Maliki strongly rejected the idea. "It is an Iraqi affair dealing with Iraqis," he told The Associated Press. "Iraqis are eager for Iraq's unity. ... Dividing Iraq is a problem and a decision like that would be a catastrophe."
On Thursday, Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi said decisions about Iraq must remain in the hands of its citizens and the spokesman for the supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr agreed. "We demand the Iraqi government to stand against such project and to condemn it officially," Liwa Semeism told the AP. "Such a decision does not represent the aspirations of all Iraqi people and it is considered an interference in Iraq's internal affairs."
Meanwhile, Turkey and Iraq on Friday signed a counterterrorism accord aimed at cracking down on Kurdish rebels who have been attacking Turkey from bases in Iraq. The pact, however, falls short of meeting Ankara's demand to send troops in pursuit of Kurdish rebels fleeing across the border into northern Iraq, Turkey's Interior Minister Besir Atalay said. The deal was signed by Iraq's Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani and Atalay.
"It was not possible to reach a deal on chasing Kurdish rebels, however, we hope this issue will be solved in the future," Atalay said. "We are expecting this cooperation against terrorism to be broadened as much as possible."
Under the deal, the countries commit themselves in cracking down activities of terrorist groups, capture and extradite members of.
