Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki today blasted calls for Sunnis to consider a secessionist movement in the nation’s west, insisting that any effort to form an autonomous region or to secede outright would lead to bloodshed.
“If it happens, people will fight each other and blood will reach to the knee,” insisted Maliki, whose Shi’ite “State of Law” Party is currently ruling in a coalition with support from the Shi’ite Iraqi National Alliance bloc.
Tensions between the two religious factions have been on the rise for years, and the 2010 election, which saw the Sunni-dominated Iraqiya bloc winning a plurality but winding up mostly irrelevant in ruling the nation has many Sunnis convinced they have no real say in their government.
Indeed, top Iraqiya figure Osama al-Nujaifi, the speaker of the Iraqi parliament, recently warned that secession was vital as a check on national power, and could be exercised if the Sunni minority did not receive more equitable treatment. Nujaifi’s brother, Atheel, is the governor of the Nineveh Province, and has come under fire for the sectarian nature of his faction’s government.
Bloodshed?? Really? WTF have they been doing for the past 6 years then? I'm surprised there are any Sunnis left to be considering secession…Can't imagine Maliki left any alive on purpose…Well, maybe he didn't want it to look too much like ethnic cleansing. Just sayin'…
This is what americans and the west wants,to divide the nation through so called sunni and shia conflict.
I don't think that either group needed much encouragement to kill each other. The USG is guilty for standing to the side and letting them do it.
If the Sunnis secede, there's bloodshed. If they don't secede, there's bloodshed. If the Shias secede, there's bloodshed. If they don't secede there's bloodshed. So, what else is new? Seems like bloodshed is the way in Iraq since goddamn Uncle Sam got into the picture in Iraq.
Why arn't NATO bombs falling on Maliki .? After all he is now threatening civilians just like Gadhafi of Libya is alledged to have.