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Mookie lambasts call for federalism
Powerful Shi’ite cleric Muqtada Al Sadr came out fiercely against federalism yesterday a day after a leading Shi’ite politician said Iraq should be split into semi-autonomous regions based on sect and ethnicity. To demand federalism is to flirt with a non-binding US Senate resolution calling for a devolution of power to three self-governing regions — for Shi’ites, Sunnis and Kurds, Sadr’s office said here.
To small a playpen for him?
On Saturday Ammar Hakim, son of Abdel Aziz Al Hakim, leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), called dividing the country “an Iraqi interest, wish and decision. “I call on this holy day for the people of my country to form (self-governing) regions, starting with the region south of Baghdad,” Ammar Hakim said.

Responding to his comments, Sadr’s office said that the movement’s opposition to federalism “is firm and has not been changed”. “After the US Congress voted to divide Iraq, it is clear that insisting on applying federalism in the current tragic Iraqi situation is a flirtation with” the US Congress resolution, Sadr’s spokesman Sheikh Saleh Al Obeidi said.
Posted by: Steve White 2007-10-16
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=202636