Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Iraq a battleground between Sunni Arabs and Shia

"At least 110 people were killed and hundreds more injured yesterday when five near-simultaneous bombs struck Baghdad. In typical fashion for a country of painful ironies, yesterday's attacks came in the aftermath of the Iraqi parliament's passing of a long-debated election law. With elections set to take place in March, few should have been surprised that Sunni extremists struck once again in an attempt to hurt the country's Shia-dominated government.

What is significant is that Arab Iraq's security problem reflects its political problems and also the geopolitical realities. There is, among Iraq's neighbours, no enthusiasm for a stable and democratic Iraq – Iraq still remains at the mercy of the intentions of its neighbours, who continue to be complicit in facilitating attacks in the country. Iraq, one could say, has become a contaminated cocktail of regional neighbours' ideological and geo-strategic aspirations; a battleground between the Sunni Arab world and Shia Iran."

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