Iraq parliament to debate federal break-up

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's parliament reopened Tuesday after a month-long recess marred by mounting sectarian violence, with deputies slated to discuss breaking up the country into semi-independent regions.

At the top of the agenda was the controversial issue of whether to allow Iraq's provinces to merge into larger autonomous regions, a move that some Sunni Arab lawmakers fear could tear the country apart.

Other groups, however, strongly support a plan that would create virtually independent zones in the oil-rich Shiite south and Kurdish north, and leave the Sunnis economically isolated in the barren western desert.

Read the rest at the Middle East Times.