BAGHDAD, Sept 10: Iraq’s parliament delayed debate on Sunday on a divisive draft law on federalism that Sunnis fear could lead to the partition of Iraq and stoke sectarian conflict that has already killed thousands.

The Shia and Kurdish-sponsored draft law paves the way for Iraq’s 18 provinces to form autonomous federal regions with their own governments and security forces.

Kurdistan, encompassing three provinces in northern Iraq, is already largely autonomous and has its own president and parliament.

But Sunnis, concentrated in Iraq’s resource-poor central and western provinces, are opposed to such a move, fearing it would seal their political doom by giving Shias in the south and Kurds in the north control of much of Iraq’s oil.

“We stand against this law. This law wants to divide Iraq,” Adnan Al-Dulaimi, leader of the biggest Sunni bloc in parliament, the Iraqi Accordance Front, said on Sunday.

Kurdish and Shia politicians drew their own battle lines, insisting the draft law, which was to have had its first reading on Sunday, would go before parliament on September 19, a date they said had originally been agreed by the Sunni parties.

“We will not retreat,” said Shia deputy speaker Khaled Al-Attiya, although not all Shia parties back the draft law.

The influence of neighbouring Iran has concerned the United States, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki was due to pay his first official visit to Tehran on Monday.

But Iraqi and Iranian officials said the trip could be delayed a day or two, and Iraq’s envoy to Iran cited ‘technical reasons’.

Washington accuses Iran of giving logistical and financial support to Shia militias in Iraq, something Tehran denies.

Iraq’s parliament faces an October 22 deadline to pass the federalism law that ideally will seek to outline the mechanics of forming federal regions and the relationship between them and the central government, among other issues.—Reuters