US Committed to a strong, Centralized Iraq: Muashir

The Jordanian Foreign Minister, Marwan Muashir, said Sunday that King Abdallah II was told when he was in Washington recently that the US opposes a loose federation in Iraq based on ethnic and religious groupings. He was told that Washington wants a strong central government in the country.

Many have suggested that Iraq would best be broken up into Kurdish, Sunni Arab and Shiite mini-states, with or without a loose Federal government binding them tenuously together. It is rumored that the loose Federation idea has some support among the neoconservatives, which is worrisome, since they tend to get what they want.

The problem is that "Washington" or the "US" could mean lots of things. Was it the State Department that told the Jordanians this, or the White House, or the Defense Department?

See my recent comment on the Federal issue at
http://www.juancole.com/
2003_09_01_juancole_archive.html
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