Iraqi Official Tells Reuters That Country May Be Split Into Parts

By: E&P Staff As one of the bloodiest weeks of the war neared an end, Iraqi officials told Reuters reporters Ahmed Rasheed and Mariam Karouny that despair was setting in and chances of averting all-out civil war were now thin.

"Iraq as a political project is finished," a top government official told Reuters. "The parties have moved to Plan B," the official said, saying Sunni, ethnic Kurdish and majority Shi'ite blocs were looking at ways to divide power and resources.

"There is serious talk of Baghdad being divided into east and west," said the official, who has long been a proponent of the present government's objectives. "We are extremely worried." Other "senior leaders" echoed this view.

Officials and delegates from a range of political, tribal, regional and religious groups will meet in Baghdad's Green Zone government on Saturday for the first meeting of the National Reconciliation Commission.