ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The head of Iraq’s powerful Shiite Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq declared that the country’s division would benefit no one, and that a federal Iraq was the only way forward.
Ammar al-Hakim’s statement comes as war-torn Iraq threatens to break up under the war with Islamic State (ISIS), which has intensified calls for Kurdish independence and even for the country’s Sunnis to break apart.
“Even if the unity of Iraq is our top demand, we should still call for the strengthening of a sense of nationhood and respect for our citizens across the country,” Hakim said.
“In order to decrease the pressures on the central government we prefer federalism,” he added. “It is the only way we can live in peace, and that is why we believe that strengthening the regions and the central government at the same time would benefit us all,” he added.
Hakim also criticized what he said was interference in Iraq’s internal affairs by many countries, warning that will have a negative impact on the country.
Hakim’s statement follows similar comments by other Iraqi leaders after Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani’s visit to Washington and Europe last week, where he said that Kurdish independence is delayed by the war with ISIS but not derailed.
