JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia warned yesterday of the risks of a civil war in Iraq with unpredictable consequences for the region, after Sunni militants seized large areas from Shia-led government forces.
The unrest “carries warning signs of a civil war with unpredictable consequences for the region,” Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal said at the opening of an Islamic bloc meeting here. Saud renewed Saudi accusations that “sectarian policies of exclusion” of Iraq’s Sunni Arab minority implemented by Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s government were responsible for the violence. This paved the way for countries with “bad intentions” towards Iraq “to go ahead with plots threatening its security, stability, national unity and sense of Arab identity,” he said. AFP
