From CNN:
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — On a day when bombs claimed at least 14 lives in Iraq and dozens more bodies were found in Baghdad, a top politician warned Wednesday that the country will collapse by year’s end if warring groups fail to reconcile.
Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni Arab, urged his colleagues to support national reconciliation, the prime goal of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government.
“We have three to four months, and if the country does not survive this, the boat will sink,” al-Mashhadani said during a parliament session after some lawmakers criticized parliamentary procedures.
Al-Mashhadani’s remarks resonated as sectarian strife has escalated between Sunnis and Shiites since the February bombing of Al-Askariya Mosque, a Shiite shrine in Samarra.
This comes as the Shi’ite bloc in the Iraqi parliament has submitted legislation proposing the division of Iraq into autonomous regions, patterned after the Kurdish north. From AFP: “Shiite Lawmakers Submit Law to Break Iraq”:
BAGHDAD, 7 September 2006 – Iraq’s dominant Shiite alliance yesterday submitted a draft of a new law to govern the division of the country into autonomous regions, as unabated violence left at least 17 people dead.
[…]
Sunni lawmakers have vociferously opposed the draft law on autonomous regions, saying it is a prelude to a carve-up of the country, which would leave them with just the resources-poor center and west of Iraq. But in recent days they appear to have softened their opposition, saying they would support the “administrative
application of federalism” as long as a strong central government remains.
Either case — violent collapse or federal break-up — looks to spell a similar future for Iraq.