Biden: Three-region solution for Iraq

WASHINGTON, May 2 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Joe Biden has reintroduced his decentralization plan to effectively partition Iraq into three distinct regions.

Biden, D-Del., the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the U.S. Senate, drew up a plan that envisioned dividing Iraq into three distinct Kurd, Sunni and Shiite regions. He introduced the plan last year, but on Tuesday he called for a second look at the proposal.

"One year ago today, Les Gelb (the president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations) and I announced our plan for a way forward in Iraq. And one year later -- with the administration's flawed policy leading us nowhere and today's news that April is the deadliest month this year -- our plan becomes more urgent every day," Biden said in a statement.

Biden's plan calls for the three main groups in Iraq to have regional autonomy while a central government manages common interests such as border security and distribution of oil revenues.

"The Bush administration still believes that Iraqis will rally to a strong, democratic central government that treats everyone equitably. ... But there is no trust within the government, no trust of the government by the people and no capacity by the government to deliver security and services," Biden said.

The Biden plan may fuel the violence, however, because it provides incentive to continue or even accelerate the sectarian killing. In the process of drawing the regional borders, sectarian militias would have every incentive to use ethnic cleansing to create a majority of their sect in order to be included in one region or another.

Meanwhile, violence in Iraq is creating a de facto situation similar in some ways to the Biden plan. Sectarian militias are carving out spheres of influence that tend to fall within the boundaries of their respective regions.