By NNN-KUNA
Cairo : Visiting Iraqi Vice-President Adel Abdel-Mahdi has dismissed the Iraq subdivision plan, saying the country has been united for 5,000 years.
In a news briefing Thursday following a meeting with President Hosni Mubarak, Abdel-Mahdi said it was up to the Iraqi people to determine their fate.
Iraq’s political future will be shaped by the country’s constitution, parliament and government, he said.
The Iraqi vice-president made the remarks in response to a recent unbinding decision by the US Congress, aiming to divide Iraq into three small states on ethnic lines.
The US Senate on Tuesday voted for a Bosnia-style plan to subdivide Iraq on ethnic lines, touted by backers as the sole hope of forging a federal state out of the current sectarian strife.
Advocates say the plan, championed by Democratic senator and presidential hopeful Joseph Biden, offers a route to a political solution in Iraq that could allow US troops to eventually return home without leaving Iraq in a chaos.
A loose autonomous federation of Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni entities might look good on paper, but critics charge it ignores Iraq’s ethnic stew, such as cities where ethnic groups live side-by-side and inter-marry, and are not divided by lines on a map.
There have been a number of recent progress reports on Iraq. The top US military commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, and US Ambassador in Baghdad Ryan Crocker earlier this month delivered their key findings in Congress.
President George W. Bush recently announced a limited withdrawal of US troops because of the “measure of success” in Iraq and the White House has published its final progress report on Iraq.
Crocker told Congress that he would back a federal system in Iraqi regions but would object to any subdivision plan.
Asked on a way out in respect of the current security quagmire in Iraq, the Iraqi vice-president claimed that there had been a “tangible improvement” in the current security situation. The police, army and defence forces now include at least half a million Iraqi people, he said.
The 2003 war and erroneous security plans have paved the way for Al-Qaeda militants and insurgents to settle in some areas in Iraq.
Abdel-Mahdi emphasized that the Iraqi people should be relied upon as a “key factor” in fighting terrorism and violence, as well as building the Iraqi armed forces.
The national reconciliation process is still underway, he said, noting that some political forces, which were earlier marginalised or isolated, are now partners in the political process.
He regarded the resignation of some ministers of the Nouri al-Maliki government as a “normal thing” in any democratic system, stressing that public interest required dialogue with those ministers who quit the Iraqi cabinet.
Asked to comment on reports billing the Iraqi government as pro-Iran and that Iraq has become a field of clashes between Iran and the US, Abdel-Mahdi dismissed all such matters, saying they were “exaggerated”.
“We seek to have the best ties of friendship with Iran and Turkey. We also respect the Arab role and friendship with Arab countries, especially neighbouring ones. The fact that we belong to the Arab world compels us to work continuously with the largest Arab country, Egypt,” he said.
The current political vacuum in Iraq will be filled by the Iraqi people themselves, rather than Arab countries, Iran, Turkey or the US, he said, calling for an Arab-Iranian dialogue and an Iranian-US dialogue as well as balanced regional relations, the Iraqi vice-president said.
On his forthcoming visit to Syria in spite of US accusations that Damascus stimulates and spurs infiltration of terrorists into Iraq, Abdel-Mahdi said: “We call for the rationalisation of the current changes in Iraq on decade-long circumstances and ramifications.”
He said: “We are trying to comprehend the existing regional complications that need to be understood and viewed in a proper perspective in efforts to seek a solution.”
Commenting on his meeting with Mubarak, he said the meeting touched on the security and political situation in Iraq, a proposal for the reopening of Egypt’s diplomatic mission in Baghdad, Iraq’s reconstruction and the regional role required of Egypt.
Following the meeting with Mubarak, ended his official visit during which he met several senior Egyptian officials.