Jordan and Turkey warn against dividing Iraq

A pesh merga fighter in Kurdish Iraq

AMMAN - Jordan and Turkey warned Saturday against dividing neighbouring Iraq along sectarian lines, saying that would spark civil war in the already violence-wracked nation and endanger the whole region.

‘A division of Iraq would mean a descent into the abyss and a civil war that ... would also have dangerous repercussions for all neighbouring countries,’ Jordanian Priem Minister Maaruf Bakhit told a press conference with visiting Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

‘We are coordinating with several countries in the region who want peace and stability for Iraq,’ Bakhit said, without elaborating.

Many of Iraq’s neighbours fear rising violence combined with a constitution that enshrines federalism will lead to the country’s breakup into Shia, Sunni and, of particular sensitivity to Ankara, Kurdish zones.

Erdogan warned that Turkey ‘will not accept a division of Iraq ... We consider a division of Iraq into three regions as the start of a civil war’.

Turkey has its own restless Kurdish minority, and many Kurdish separatist rebels are based in northern Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous area.

‘Those who play a bad role to divide Iraq will never be pardoned, neither by history nor by humanity,’ said Erdogan, in Jordan for a three-day visit during which he will also meet King Abdullah II.

Read the rest at the Khaleej Times

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