CAIRO, Sept 27 (KUNA) -- Visiting Iraqi Vice-President Adel Abdel-Mahdi here Thursday dismissed Iraq subdivision plans, saying the country has been united for 5,000 years.
Abdel-Mahdi made the remarks in a news briefing following a meeting with President Hosni Mubarak, saying that it was up to the Iraqi people to determine their fate themselves.
Iraq's political future will be shaped by the country's constitution, parliament and government, he noted.
The Iraqi vice-president made the remarks in response to a recent unbinding decision by the US Congress, aiming to divide Iraq into three small states on ethnic lines.
Earlier on Tuesday, the US Senate voted for a Bosnia-style plan to subdivide Iraq on ethnic lines, touted by backers as the sole hope of forging a federal state out of sectarian strife.
Advocates say the plan, championed by Democratic senator and presidential hopeful Joseph Biden, offers a route to a political solution in Iraq that could allow US troops to eventually go home without leaving chaos behind.
A loose autonomous federation of Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni entities might look good on paper, but critics charge it ignores Iraq's ethnic stew, such as cities where ethnic groups live side-by-side and inter-marry, and are not divided by lines on a map. There have been a number of recent progress reports on Iraq. The top US military commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, and US ambassador Ryan Crocker this week delivered their key findings to Congress.
President Bush has recently announced a limited withdrawal of US troops because of the "measure of success" in Iraq, and the White House has published its final progress report on Iraq.
The US ambassador in Baghdad told US Congress earlier this month that he would back a federal system in Iraqi regions, but would object to any subdivision plan.
Asked about how to find a way out of the current security quagmire in Iraq, the Iraqi vice-president claimed that a "tangible improvement" happened in the current security situation.
The police, army and defence forces now include at least half a million Iraqi people, he said.
The 2003 war and erroneous security planes have the paved the way for Al-Qaeda militants and insurgents to settle in some areas in Iraq.
He emphasized that the Iraqi people should be relied upon as a "key factor" in fighting terrorism and violence, as well as building Iraqi armed forces.
The national reconciliation process is still underway, he said, noting that some political forces, which were earlier marginalized or isolated, are now partners to the political process.
However, he regarded the resignation of some ministers of the Nouri al-Maliki government as a "normal thing" in any democratic system, stressing that public interest required dialogue with those ministers who quit the Iraqi cabinet.
Asked about reports billing the Iraqi government as pro-Iran one and Iraq has become a field of clashes between Iran and the US, Abdel-Mahdi dismissed all such matters as "exaggerated".
"We seek to have the best relations of friendship with Iran and Turkey. We also respect the Arab role and friendship with Arab countries, especially neighboring ones. Our belonging to the Arab world compels us to work continuously work with the largest Arab country, Egypt," he said.
The current political vacuum in Iraq will be filled by the Iraqi people themselves, rather than Arab countries, Iran, Turkey or the US, he said, calling for an Arab-Iranian dialogue and an Iranian-US dialogue as well as balanced regional relations, the Iraqi vice-president added.
On his coming visit to Syria in spite of US accusations that Damascus stimulates and spurs infiltration of terrorists into Iraq, Abdel-Mahdi said, "We call for fathoming out the current changes in Iraq due to decade-long circumstances and ramifications." He went on to say, "We are trying to comprehend the existing regional complications that need to be understood and finessed in a proper manner in pursuit of an accommodation." Commenting on his meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, he said the meeting touched upon the security and political situation in Iraq, a proposal for Egypt's diplomatic mission return to Baghdad, Iraq's reconstruction and Egypt's required regional role.
Following the meeting with Mubarak, the Iraqi vice-president has left Cairo, returning home, wounding a several-day official visit during which he met with several senior Egyptian officials. (end) sm.rg.mt