Iraqi warns victory for Syrian insurgents will trigger wars

Iraq’s prime minister has warned that a victory for Syria’s rebels will spark sectarian wars in his own country and in Lebanon, and will create a new haven for al-Qaeda that would destabilise the region.

By The Newsroom Thursday, 28th February 2013, 12:00 am

The comments by prime minister Nouri al-Maliki are one of his strongest warnings yet about the turmoil that toppling Syrian president Bashar al-Assad could create in the Middle East. It comes as his government confronts growing tensions of its own between the Shiite majority and an increasingly restive Sunni minority nearly a decade after the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Fighting in Syria has sharp sectarian overtones, with predominantly Sunni rebels battling a regime dominated by Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

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Speaking from his office in a Saddam Hussein-era palace inside Baghdad’s heavily guarded Green Zone yesterday, Mr al-Maliki reiterated his stance that foreign military intervention is not a solution to ending the crisis in Syria.

He called on outside countries to “be more reasonable regarding Syria”.

“If the world does not agree to support a peaceful solution through dialogue… then I see no light at the end of the tunnel.

“Neither the opposition nor the regime can finish each other off,” he said. “If the opposition is victorious, there will be a civil war in Lebanon, divisions in Jordan and a sectarian war in Iraq.”