Federalism 'politically dead'

Baghdad: The Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament said that a controversial plan to partition the country into three autonomous regions is politically dead.

Mahmoud Al Mashhadani said in an interview that legislation to implement federalism, which threatened to collapse the country's fragile multi-sect government, would likely be postponed indefinitely after a meeting of political leaders yesterday.

The federalism plan would create a Shiite region in southern Iraq much like the autonomous zone in the north controlled by the Kurds.

Sunnis have generally opposed the plan, on grounds it would leave them only with vast swaths of desert in the country's middle, devoid of the oil reserves in the other regions.

"If federalism is to be applied now, it would lead to the secession of the south and the establishment of an Islamist extremist state in the centre of the country," said Al Mashhadani, an outspoken Sunni.

When asked to predict the likely outcome of yesterday's meeting of political leaders, he said: "We could agree on the principle and then postpone the topic for four years."

The head of the largest Shiite coalition in Iraq, Abdul Aziz Al Hakim of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, is the strongest supporter of legislation for federalism.

In Najaf on Tuesday, Al Hakim issued a full defence of federalism, which he described as a basic constitutional right of all Iraqis.

But support for the plan began to erode after a vast array of Sunni, Shiite and secular groups boycotted parliament on Sunday to protest the plan.