BAGHDAD - Shiite and Sunni figures in Iraq dismissed Saturday a US Senate plan to split Iraq along ethnic and religious lines, while the Kurds welcomed it as the "only viable solution" to the present chaos.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said upon his return from the United States that the idea being floated there by a US senator and presidential hopeful would "be a catastrophe not only in Iraq but also on the region."
"It is Iraqis who decide and they are keen to maintain the unity of their country," Maliki told state-run Al-Iraqiya television.
Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric who commands the largest single bloc in parliament and boasts a powerful militia known as the Mahdi Army, said the proposal demonstrated "flagrant interference in Iraq's internal affairs."
"We reject this decision chapter and verse and demand the Iraqi government reject it," he said in a statement issued by his office.
The leading Sunni authority in Iraq, the Ulema Council -- also known as the Committee of Muslim Scholars -- joined the Shiite condemnation, saying the idea "uses the pretext of avoiding violence to impose the division of Iraq."
This division is "one of the main objectives of American occupation," the council said, calling on Iraqis to reject it.
The only place where the splitting of Iraq was popular was in the Kurdish region in the north which already enjoys a large degree of autonomy.
"The people and government of the Kurdistan region welcome the adoption of the US Senate resolution calling for the rebuilding of the Iraqi state on the basis of federalism," a statement from the regional government said.
"A federal arrangement for the Iraqi state does not mean division, but rather voluntary union. It is the only viable solution to the problems of Iraq."
The plan, offered by Democratic presidential hopeful Joseph Biden as an amendment to a defence policy bill, was approved Wednesday at the US Senate in Washington by a vote of 75 to 23.
Syria's Assad backs Iraq 'unity'
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad brushed aside Saturday the US Senate plan to split Iraq along ethnic and religious lines, instead pledging support for Baghdad's "sovereignty" in talks with a top Iraqi official.
Assad pledged "Syria's support for the political process underway in Iraq and national reconciliation between all the Iraqi peoples," in talks with Iraq's Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi, the official Sana news agency reported.
He also reaffirmed "Syria's attachment to the security and independence of Iraq and its support for the sovereignty and unity of the country".
Iran condemns US Senate plan to split Iraq
Iran on Saturday condemned the US Senate plan to split Iraq along ethnic and religious lines, saying it amounted to "blatant interference" in its western neighbour's affairs.
"The US Senate's act is blatant interference in Iraqi internal affairs and violates this country's national unity and territorial integrity," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hoseini said in a statement.
"The recent move is among mistakes that Americans will have to correct," the spokesman said.
Hosseini said "such measures are aimed at disrupting Iraq's unity and integrity as well as increasing crisis in Iraq and the region."
He also charged that the initiative was aimed at "standing against the efforts of the government of (Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri) al-Maliki to create national unity.
"Any decision about Iraq should be made by its people and through legally defined ways. It is the Iraqis' right to determine their fate."
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