Alwaght- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has condemned a plan to partition Iraq saying Moscow would never consent to such an idea.
“We would never adopt a position voiced without any constraint by US Vice President Joe Biden, who said directly that Iraq should be split into Shiite and Sunni parts and that the Kurds should be given what they want,” Lavrov told the participants of the youth forum ‘Territory of Meanings’ near Moscow.
Lavrov labeled Biden’s position as “highly irresponsible and what’s more important – unacceptable,” because someone from overseas is lecturing Iraqi people on what to do with their country.
“We won’t commit to such things, telling Sunnis to get out today and urging Shiites to move on next time. This is ‘social engineering,’ state structure manipulation from far outside,” Lavrov said, stressing that the destructiveness of such a plan is obvious.
“We believe that Iraqis – Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds – should decide for themselves how to live together,” the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry was quoted by RT as saying.
Lavrov’s remarks come following reports that Vice President Joe Biden is “seriously deciding whether to jump into the Democratic presidential race.”
The idea of decentralizing Iraq was voiced by Biden as early as 2006, in his ‘Unity Through Autonomy in Iraq’ article for the New York Times.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's office also recently rejected a suggestion by Gen. Raymond Odierno, outgoing US Army chief of staff, that Iraq could be partitioned.
Odierno, who was commander of US troops in Iraq from 2008 to 2010, suggested a partition of Iraq "is something that could happen," adding it "might be the only solution, but I'm not ready to say that yet."
In a recent interview Secretary General of Iraq’s Badr Organization Hadi al-Ameri censured the proposed bill as a “Zionist plan,” adding, “We should realize that dividing Iraq, Syria or any other Arab nation is a Zionist project to help Israeli regime exhibit itself as the strongest entity in the region.”