By Nor Faridah Abdul Rashid, NNN-Bernama
Dubai : The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has strongly condemned the plan by the United States Senate to split Iraq along ethnic and religious lines.
OIC Secretary-General Prof Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said Sunday such a move would only result in more disunity in Iraq and further exacerbation of social strife.
It could also create sectarian warfare among the people of the same nation, he said in a statement issued in Jeddah.
“What is needed now is not the division of the country but rather unity and a real national reconciliation,” he said, while stressing that no one had the right to decide the destiny of a country except the citizens themselves.
“And Iraq’s destiny is an inalienable right of the Iraqi people exclusively and cannot be delegated to any party whatsoever,” said Ihsanoglu, who described the US Senate proposal as “full of imperfections and dangers that will intensify instability in the Middle East and the entire world”.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and other members of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) have also criticized the US Senate’s non-binding resolution to divide Iraq along ethnic and religious lines, saying the move would complicate matters further in the war-torn country.
“The Bosnia-style plan, touted as a way out of the sectarian strife, which has risen steadily since the 2003 US-led invasion, would add new complications to the already difficult situation in Iraq,” Arab News reported GCC Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Al-Attiyah as saying in a statement.
Instead of calling for a division, the causes that led to the current situation should be addressed, he said, adding: “These include (US-led) occupation, sectarian and ethnic quota system, absence of law and security and paralysed administration.”
Besides Saudi Arabia, the other GCC members are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.