Iraq faces split, Jordan and Saudi royals warn
THE king of Jordan and a senior Saudi prince yesterday warned Iraq was at risk of partition along sectarian lines.
King Abdullah said sectarian bloodshed could split the country into “weak statelets” while Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, said a break-up would hurt everyone in Iraq.
Moderate Arab countries fear sectarian violence in Iraq could spread across their borders and engulf the region. They are also concerned about increasing Iranian influence in Iraq, whose government is led by Shiite groups close to Tehran.
“If the situation continues this way … then there are real fears of the division of Iraq into weak statelets fighting over limited interests,” King Abdullah said.
“The biggest losers will be the Iraqi people in all their sects.”
He spoke of the dangers of increasing conflict and his hopes that international intervention by states in the region could avert full-scale civil war.
“No one disagrees that such a spread [of violence] would, if it deepens, have a very negative effect and serve no-one,” the king said.
“Its destructive effects will reflect on everyone, increasing divisive conflicts, isolation and disintegration and this region will sink into slaughters whose duration no-one knows.
“We hope the efforts of all Iraq’s neighbours, including Iran, will help it out of its current crisis … rather than sliding into a full civil war whose consequences will go beyond Iraq to hit the region.”
Prince Faisal told Iran not to get involved in Arab affairs as he spoke of the need to prevent Iraq falling apart.
“For Saudi Arabia, a partition of Iraq is inconceivable. It is essential to avoid it,” he said.
“This break-up would first of all hurt Iraqis, who have suffered decades of conflict.
“We are doing everything so that Iraqis - Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds - co-operate.
“From Iraq, al-Qaeda threatens not only Saudi Arabia but the entire region.”
With sectarian violence raging in Iraq, many now talk openly of partition along sectarian lines, which would end US hopes of promoting a unified, democratic Iraq.
Saudi Arabia, a majority Sunni country, is wary of the rise of religious Shiite parties in Iraq’s new government and the influence of neighbouring Shiite Iran, which is believed to be providing military and financial support to Shiite militias.
Prince Faisal had harsh words for Iran, warning it against “meddling in Arab affairs”.
He also spoke out against French efforts to send an envoy to Iran to discuss the tensions in Lebanon and conflicts in the Middle East, saying that doing so would “grant legitimacy to Iranian interference in the Arab world”.
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