The plan would divide Iraq into a Kurdish region in the north, a Shiite Arab region in the south, and a Sunni Arab region in central and western Iraq. Kurds and Shiites were brutally oppressed under the Hussein regime. They constitute roughly 20 percent and 60 percent of the population, respectively.

The main forces in the UIA are the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Islamic DAWA Party, and the bloc led by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The UIA fell 10 seats short of an outright majority in elections last December. It has formed a coalition government with the Kurdish Alliance, which won the second largest bloc of seats in parliament, giving it political weight in the government.

Kurdish leaders are backing the UIA proposal for a federated Iraq. An autonomous Kurdish region, known as Iraqi Kurdistan, has already existed for 15 years. An unexpected consequence of the U.S.-led war in Iraq has been an acceleration of the aspirations of the Kurds for national independence (see article above).

“We ourselves have a federal region, and we want more authority,” said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of Iraq’s National Assembly, according to the September 11 Washington Post.

The Iraqi Accordance Front and the Iraqi National Dialogue Front, the two main capitalist parties based largely among Sunnis, have opposed the federal plan. “The establishment of a federation would mean civil war,” threatened Saleh al-Mutlak, chairman of the National Dialogue Front.

These two parties rejected the proposal and boycotted the parliamentary session at which it was to be presented, according to press reports. They were joined in the boycott by political forces loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr and to former Iraqi premier Iyad Allawi.

Militias loyal to al-Sadr fought fierce battles with U.S. troops in southern Iraq in 2004. Al-Sadr’s supporters now head several ministries in the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.

Allawi is a wealthy Shiite who served as prime minister in the Iraqi interim government, which was handpicked by Washington.

Control of vast oil reserves in Iraq’s north and south are at the center of opposition by Sunni capitalists to a federated Iraq. Wealthy Sunnis made up the backbone of support for Hussein’s Baathist regime and enjoyed a broad range of privileges over Kurds and Shiites.
 
 
Related articles:
Gov’t of Iraqi Kurdistan strengthens its autonomy  
 
 
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