British Chancellor Gordon Brown said Thursday that dividing Iraq is neither a current plan nor a realistic option, pushing back against growing debate over the coalition's strategy in the country.
Brown, widely expected to succeed Prime Minister Tony Blair by September 2007, told BBC radio that discussions within his government centered on restoring security nationwide and bolstering democratic institutions, not redrawing the country's borders.
His remarks came as rising sectarian bloodshed and coalition casualties intensified calls for a troop withdrawal or a split of Iraq along Kurdish, Sunni, and Shia lines. US President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki maintained that their pacification efforts remained on course despite the continuing violence.
Earlier in the week, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett had acknowledged that partition could eventually become a solution, though she stressed any such decision belonged to Baghdad.
Brown aligned himself with Blair and other senior ministers in arguing that security conditions must improve before Britain considers reducing its roughly 7,000 troops, stationed mainly in southern Iraq. He said no general or minister was suggesting an imminent withdrawal.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in October 2006, in its own words.