October
2, 2007
Washington, -- Senate Foreign Relations
Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Monday defended his
proposal for a three-way division of Iraq against
criticism by Iraqi politicians and a rare rebuke
from the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
“It is not partition, it is not foreign imposition,”
the Delaware Democrat, a contender for the
Democratic presidential nomination, told reporters
in a conference call. “A
federal Iraq is a united Iraq.”
The Senate last week adopted Biden’s non-binding
proposal by a 75-23 vote.
The “sense of the Senate” amendment to the fiscal
2008 Defense authorization bill (HR 1585) calls for
Iraq to be divided into Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish
“federal regions,” with a weak national government
to facilitate sharing of oil revenue.
The proposal drew criticism from Iraqi politicians,
including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and from
the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, which posted an
unsigned statement on its Web site Sunday.
“The embassy wishes to make clear that it remains
the firm policy of the American administration to
support a stable, secure, and unified Iraq,” the
statement said.
“As we have said in the past, attempts to partition
or divide Iraq by intimidation, force or other means
into three separate states would produce
extraordinary suffering and bloodshed. The United
States has made clear our strong opposition to such
attempts.”
Biden, who has long advocated a division of Iraq
along ethnic and sectarian lines, rejected the
contention that the Senate had no right to weigh in
on the matter.
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 Senators who proposed the "non-binding" draft
resolution considered that it was the "only
solution" to grind to a halt acts of violence
sweeping the war-scarred nation.
Kurdistan Government in 'northern Iraq'
applauds the U.S. Senate
on passing the legislation for federal Iraq. |
Delaware senator and US presidential Democratic
candidate Joe Biden
“It is not partition, it is not foreign imposition,”
the Delaware Democrat, a contender for the
Democratic presidential nomination, told reporters
in a conference call. “A federal Iraq is a united
Iraq.”
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