Iraq's dominant Shiite political alliance has submitted to parliament a draft law governing the division of the country into autonomous regions.
" The general committee of the United Iraqi Alliance finished drafting the law of regional formations and submitted it to the leadership of the parliament for review," Shiite lawmaker Hamid Mualla al-Saadi said Wednesday.
The second day of parliament since the end of its month-long recess is expected to be dominated with the review of the controversial draft law which will govern the process of dividing the country into autonomous regions.
The three Kurdish provinces in the north are already autonomous and Shiite lawmakers have indicated they would like a similar federal status for the overwhelmingly Shiite southern provinces.
With Iraq's oil entirely concentrated in the northern and southern region's, the proposals worry the country's Sunni Arabs, largely found in the arid and resource-poor center of the country.
Kurdish and Shiite parties, however, make up two-thirds of the parliament.
I still don't understand why we don't broker some kind of deal where the three groups share the oil/resources and live in a very loose three state confederation.
