A Picture of Iraq Partition Begins to Appear
Today, Grand Ayatollia al-Sistani rejected proposals that Shiites join in a coalition with Kurds and Sunnis against the Shiite radical cleric Muktar al-Sadr. This rejection comes in the face of pleas from the Whitehouse as well as calls for coallition from the Iraqi government. Al-Sistani made it clear that Shiites first loyalty was to, well Shiites. Click here to read more from the Associated Press on Yahoo News.
About two weeks ago, Dick Cheney made a trip to the Middle East and stopped to see King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The bad news that he learned there was that Saudi Arabia is becoming concerned about the plight of Iraq’s Sunni population. Within days of the visit, officials in Saudi Arabia began to talk about financial and other support that could be offered Sunnis if the United States leaves Iraq. Clearly, Saudi Arabia is posturing itself as supporters of the Sunni population. Some observers believe that if necessary, Saudi Arabai would offer military support.
Lastly, many observers believe that the Turkish Army is poised to enter Iraq’s Kurdish territories in a Spring 2007 offensive. Ostensibly, Turkey is worried about terrorists crossing the border into Turkey. The real reason is that Turkey would like to see the Kurdish section of Iraq added to the Kurdish part of Turkey. Click here to read an article from Radio Free Europe. Although the dateline on this article is a few months old, there is plenty of fire behind the smoke. The retired Chief of Staff of the Turkish Army repeated this warning to Margaret Warner in a PBS news interview only a few days ago.