Check out our new Money Talks post on Vietnam

Currency News

Islamic bloc condemns US Senate plan to split Iraq

The 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference on Saturday condemned a US Senate plan to split Iraq along ethnic and religious lines, saying it would only fuel more violence.

OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said the Bosnia-style plan, billed as a way out of the sectarian strife since the 2003 US-led invasion, would only "deepen the roots of unrest and sectarian killing amongst the children of the state".

Senate's non-binding resolution, which is opposed by President George W. Bush, would provide for decentralising Iraq in a federal system as permitted by Iraq's constitution to stop the country from becoming a failed state.

It proposes to separate Iraq into Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni entities, with a federal government in Baghdad in charge of border security and oil revenues.

But Ihsanoglu said he supported "real national reconciliation" rather than geographic division to solve Iraq's problems, the OIC said in statement issued from its Jeddah headquarters.

Iraq's government on Friday firmly rejected the plan, saying it was up to the Iraqis to decide their own future.

The head of the Gulf Cooperation Council has also dismissed the Senate's proposal, saying it would complicate an already difficult situation and failed to address the true causes of the bloodshed.

The GCC groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United

Back to Top