Arabs criticize U.S. Senate resolution on Iraq

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Arab League and an Iraqi vice president criticized on Thursday a U.S. Senate resolution advocating the division of Iraq into federal regions.

Ali al-Jaroush, the head of the Arab relations department at the Cairo-based league, said the idea was "hostile to Arab interests" and the best response would be to help the Iraqi people drive occupying forces out of the country.

The non-binding Senate amendment, sponsored by Delaware Democrat Joe Biden and passed on Wednesday, says the United States should actively support a political settlement among Iraqis based on a federal system of government.

The amendment has been widely interpreted as a proposal to divide Iraq along sectarian and ethnic lines into Sunni Arab, Shi'ite Arab and Kurdish regions.

Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shi'ite Muslim, told reporters in Cairo that it was up to Iraqis to decide the future of their country.

He added: "Iraq has been united for thousands of years and it has the ability to preserve its unity and its integrity... No one can image implementing the partition of Iraq."

Jaroush of the Arab League, which represents all 22 Arab governments, said he was surprised the U.S. Senate had failed many times to pass a resolution on withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, while the Biden amendment passed at the first attempt.

"The international community has started to understand the truth of U.S. aims in the region and to see through the false claims about weapons of mass destruction and pursuing Al Qaeda," the Arab League official added.