for the first time shia in iraq has a voice, and that's translated to power. and unfortunately nouri al-maliki has not been able to provide the leadership to get the communities together after all iraq, the shia and sunni communities have lived together for a long time. there has been corporation in the old days. we do see that for the first time the shia were empowered to become a source of worry not only for the iraqi sunnies, but for the neighboring soupy arab countries. >> professor, a lot of stories coming out of iraq portray the isil forces as a bad bunch of guys. are there a lot of sunnies who are caught not really in favor of having their areas run by isil, but also not that enthused about the shia centric government of nouri al-maliki, either. >> that's exactly right, ray. the polling shows that the majority of iraqi sunnies are secular minded people. remember, they were brought up under a socialist nationalist government. there are, you know a strong minority that have become religious fundamentalists. but it's not where the sunni community of iraq's

calls them dirty shias. while something undoubtedly terrible is going on in those videos, the iraqi government denies a massacre took place on that scale. whether or not the group did commit an atrocity that is as terrible as what they say they did, the reason that you go and post tweets about it and upload social media-ready videos about it rather than just do it is because you want an action like that to have more than just its direct military utility, right? you want to terrorize, you want to instill fear against anybody who might be thinking against fighting against you. you want populations to flee ahead of your advance. but you also want to provoke the world, right? you want to provoke a fight that is larger than the fight you are already having. this group that's taken over these big swaths of iraq, it is an offshoot of al qaeda, and they very clearly want the western world back in the middle east waging war with themselves. the true believers. right? yeah, a war with the shias, a war with iran and th

. , where we now have the shia majority, over 60% of the population, that's shia majority also did not expand until much he 18th,ntil bt 19th, and 20th centuries. many of them were political and economic reasons. that isthis fissure deeply divided throughout the centuries. every step of the way we had bloodshed a confrontation -- and confrontation. togetheristed and live for a well at different stages. they just consider themselves muslims. there are times when the conflict was bloody, and you see especially when they are trying to establish the central authority. everyone has multiple identity, and the question is which one do you embrace? interestingly, you suggested that we would talk about the shia and the kurds. mostly sunni muslim, and yet we talk about them as a separate group because they are a separate sect. they have a different ethnicity, and yet we do not lump them with sunnis because they are allied in thee shias government and the coalition interest. the fact that you have some sunnis in coalition with these ias, tells you part of the story. headline, of another in the sh

no other shia was coming forward.hat eventually happened was, in the absence of anyone else, they were eventually able to form a government in which they had eight sunnis and six or seven cards -- kurds to go with the shia in the cabinet of 28. maliki did succeed. he is tenacious. he kind of played rope a dope with his opponents. he would not leave. they try to pummel him. but at the end of the match, he was the one still there. toughis clearly a character. perhaps you have to be in iraqi politics. there has been a lot of criticism of him recently, and of the shia's unwillingness to share power with the sunnis. did you think it was possible the sunnis would accept shia ruling a country? >> i think there are two fundamental problems. one is, at this point, maliki needs to be dissuaded from a third term. i think that is doable given that just about everybody is opposed to him, including the ayatollah and other shia blocs. i think we could get to a situation where maliki does not succeed himself. he second and more diffi

nobody is sanctioning iran because it is shia. it is not shia-sunni thing.e had for the go to the oil and gas, hydrocarbon law, maliki approved, worked with the kurds and shia in basra and sunnis in anbar and approved this hydrocarbon law, we wouldn't have a problem with exporting oil out of ports in turkey. now there are tankers that are filling up with iraqi oil, exported from the krg, kurdish regional government, but that is the effect. the cause was not approving the hydrocarbon law. again it is a economic problem. the, you know the sunnis in anbar or ninevah they were barred from major jobs they used have in the past. why were they? whether it was debaathification or not debaathification, if they were not criminals, why would you be barred from a job? why would a shia be barred from a job whether he was a baathist or not? that is the economic underlying cause that brought us to this problem today. but what happened is obviously the sunnis and anbar and saladin wanted some assistance to help them fight for their rights. so we have to, as iraqis we have t

they are sunni or shia. you see, the government here in iraq is a shia government.hia are the -- they are the majority in iraq. sunni are the minorities. what they've said, the sunnis are like, you've been repressing us, you're not giving us a voice in government, you're not giving us a say in our own nation. you made it to do this or we're going to rebel against you, and now they have. the thing is, sunnis are the majority in the rest of this area, right? they've come from syria to help and back and forth. they've mounted this insurgence. we'll explain exactly how in a minute. as for the iraqi government, nuri al maliki, the prime minister, he's a shia and asked the parliament to give emergency powers. not enough lawmakers showed up, so they couldn't hold a vote. chaos and disarray. that leaves the iraqi people pretty much on their own. an estimated half million men, women, and children ran from their homes in the city of mosul alone. remember, the best estimates that we can get, imperfect, but the best we can get, indicate a half month iraqis have died in this con

those are shia holy lands as the sunni in mecca are. they did blow a mosque up in february 2006 that's because they wanted to undermine a new government. right now that's not their

thousands of shia have responded. this video, uploaded to youtube claims to show hundreds of shia in naja signing up to fight. cnn cannot independently verify the video. on a baghdad street, we met one young man selling shoes. he says he has already signed up to fight. on god's will he says, iraq will be stabilized and we shall stay as a thorn in their eye. we will be victorious. we don't need any u.s. occupation or iran. we don't need any arab country. us iraqis are heroes. but with the fighting concerns the sectarian divide is deepening. new signs of possible sectarian killings. days after videos uploaded by isis claim to show mass killings of shia, nearly four dozen sunni prisoners at a jail in bakuba were killed as militants besiege the city. according to a local health official, they were shot to death at close range. allegations they were killed by iraqi police were denied by authorities who blame the deaths on shelling by isis. also in baghdad, another troubling sign. four bodies were found today in a largely s

this is not yet a conflict of sunni against shia. shock troops of a sunni uprising against a shia-led government. the iraqis fear the jihadis have made a return to civil war inevitable. >> be terrifying prospect of what is happening in iraq. possibleon the involvement, an adviser from the bush administration. to the extent that america has some ownership of the problems in iraq, and this potentially poses a national security threat to all of the west, what should the u.s. be doing now? >> the president is looking at a variety of options. these will include a more robust shipment of weapons, but those if not months,, to arrive. airstrikes appear to be another option. frankly, we do not seem to have a good picture of what is where and who is on the ground. they could get us into serious fighting business. >> do you see the by surprise? >> i get the impression that a lot of people have been caught by surprise. there was witnessed by the -- isis forces.the but this has been growing for a year. question --gs the america should have had a

i think he was extremely suspicious of the shia because they were shia.e asked a lot of religious leaders -- there was that. but nothing like what existed after that and what it is today. you haveador brahimi, suggested that sectarianism was exacerbated following the 2003 invasion of iraq by the u.s. >> sure. >> one of the other effect you mentioned earlier was the spread of terrorism, particularly suicide attacks in iraq, which prior to 2003 were unprecedented. neither iraq, afghanistan, or syria had witnessed suicide attacks before 9/11 occurred and subsequent to that, the u.s. invasion of afghanistan. could you talk about the implications of that, what the effects have been, and how you think that phenomenon, so widespread, should be dealt with? >> it did not exist in iraq. and this al qaeda did not exist at all, had no dormant cell in iraq. it was brought in after the invasion as a way of people crusader, aght a power invading a sister muslim country. that is when al qaeda came in and started to recruit iraqis and to bring in non-iraqis. isis wastor o

it's a shia government that persecuted the sunnis of iraq.on this insurgency has grown -- this is a few thousand fighters who are up against a $600,0 600,000 iraqi army. they are winning because they have local support among disaffected sunnis. so in the sunni context, you have a government in iraq supported by the shia government in iran and elite guards from iran are coming to support the iraqi government and u.s. would be placed in the extremely awkward position of being the air force for iran's revolutionary guard and the iraqi government. that's the dilemma. this government has not been inclusive or democratic and pro-iranian and pro-syrian. before the president decides he wants to act to support it, he's going to have to ask if there is something he can ask of this government in terms of reform. >> i know u.s. officials are deeply concerned, fareed. we'll discuss this later, about the possibility that some of these groups could go ahead and attack some shiite shrines in iraq. that would simply explode this situation totally as you and a

the shia will keep the southern part which is all shia, shiastan if you well, and in the middle will, radical sunni groups, very messy, very chaotic and a place where, you know, nobody should go and travel. i think at that point the united states best strategy would be to try to give security and support to the stable parts of the region and to just accept that they're going to be some places that are essentially badlands. >> oh, my goodness, what an abysmal scenario here we're talking about. all right, fareed zakaria, appreciate it. thanks so much. >> pleasure. and healthy. that's why i'm so excited about these new milk-bone brushing chews. whoa, i'm not the only one. it's a brilliant new way to take care of his teeth. clinically proven as effective as brushing. ok, here you go. have you ever seen a dog brush his own teeth? the twist and nub design cleans all the way down to the gum line, even reaching the back teeth. they taste like a treat, but they clean like a toothbrush. nothing says you care like a milk-bone brushing chew. [ barks ] >>> former secretary of state hillary clinto

there are sixty iraqis sixty percent shia only twenty percent arab sunni so you know in the long run the regime should be stable and i expect them to be able to resist the isis offensive from here on out but you're right to ask the question about u.s. involvement and my advice would be to stay out of it militarily the the maliki government once it organizes itself should be able to resist this i mean one of the reasons it wasn't resisted in the north was because of the sectarian factor the sunni people up there simply turned on the shia led army of iraq stephen in new york but molecules had quite a few years to get himself organized and let's not forget about that twenty five billion dollars in military assistance and training i mean if he couldn't get himself organized the last eight years what why would we expect that in the next few months and well i think that's a good question and i think the fact is that he has presided over a diminishing regime even though he was supposedly the met democratically elected he failed to include in his government majority sorry the leading figures

which is not shia. they are another sect. in the west, it is easy to lump them together and say there is nothing else. different with leaders with different interests and different strategies going forward. malaki has been able to portray himself as the leader of the shia community, and in doing so, and this goes to pete's point, it serves his interest, because defecting,shia from and i think what we would all like to see in iraq is an is lessent where there sectarian solidarity. one of the things i got very alarmed by under the bush 2004 andation, about the bush itnk ministration wanted a unified shia bloc and a unified kurdish bloc. the problem i have been concerned with is you cannot make a mosaic with three pieces, and you cannot make a coalition when 95% of the people are in the government and five percent of the people are in opposition. what you really want is a dynamic environment where people this government, but i can be in the next one. where people bounce in and out. it seems that politicall

people are scared of having iran and that includes shias. iran can never play an objective role in iraq. by having iran intervene or giving the space for iran to interfere, we even have the chance of exaggerating the tenseions between sunni and shias not only in iran but in syria and lebanon. iran can never play an objective role in here. the only way we can calm the situation is if we have outside troops coming in and helping out in the situation and that is including u.s. and iran collaboration in the country. >> is that whau you are hearing people call from? >> people in iraq never gave up on the u.s. until today, the sort of narrative in iraq is that the u.s. will come and save us. and that's from both sunnis and shia. so that narrative never changed, even though the u.s. has sort of long gone from iraq. and changed its own narrative. yes, the morality in iraq is, can the u.s. come and save us. >> ambassador holliday if direct intervention isn't feasible politically, there are any other parties on the ground the united states should be l

people itself well i think that the regime the maliki government in iraq is not unpopular with the shia. the problem with this situation is that we're having a sectarian war again in iraq that is that the the sunni's in the north the shia in the south. our are basically confronting each other through this. insurgent group isis that is sweeping through mosul and to crete and other cities in the arab sunni parts of iraq maliki is fairly strong with the majority shia there sixty iraqis sixty percent only twenty percent arab sunni so you know in the long run the regime should be stable and i expect them to be able to resist the isis offensive from here on out but you're right to ask the question about u.s. involvement and my advice would be to stay out of it militarily the the maliki government once it organizes itself should be able to resist this i mean one of the reasons it wasn't resisting in the north was because of the sectarian factor the sunni people up there simply turned on the shia led army of iraq stephen in new york but my look he's had quite a few years to get himself organize

maliki who is a shia has deep differences with other shia leaders and the wider shia coalition. i don't think it's possible at this stage because there are way too much difference between all the political groups. the political groups say they do not favor the prime minister to take a third term in office. the prime minister wans to ensure that he takes a third term in office. his political opponents say that basically he will not get that. so i don't think there will be any sort of a compromise. it is very difficult. >> and if no compromise is possible how do people in iraq and baghdad and the government expect this to play out over the next few days perhaps the next several weeks? >> i think they are fearing the worst because everybody is trying now to galvanize their own supporters. there is a lot of things at play right now, in iraq. basically, you have the government trying to call on supporters of the prime minister, to stand united to stand with the conspiracy led by the prime minister, there is also talk -- there is talk trying to appeal to people on the sectarian affili

shia groups gather near baghdad. >>> hello, welcome. i'm steven cole, you're watching al jazeera from doha. a new u.n. report says half of syria's population needs urgent help to survive. francis is due to arrive in southern italy to take on the mafia. plus... (technical difficulties) >>> but first, the most powerful armed shia group in iraq is holding a show of power against its enemies. supporters of mok tarreda al-sada are marching across the country. other shia groups involved - the biggest event in baghdad. the mardy army commands tens of thousands, volunteering to help the iraqi army stop sunni rebels advance on baghdad. imran khan was in sadda city and sent this update. >> reporter: clearly this is a show of strength. what they want to say is they are ready to defend baghdad. these are designed to be peace platoons, not designed to go on the offensive. look around you. i'm surrounded by heavily armed men. these images will worrisome people and remind them of the mardy army and the days of sectarian violence in 2006, 2007 and 2008

security council, but increasingly being revealed as a sunni/shia, sectarian split with hezbollah and iran and groups like isis who are sunnis trying to take it down. we've got to get back to work to do in syria. the aggressive delivery of humanitarian aid to those under siege and in accordance with the revolution. it will also help reduce tensions in iraq. >> when you say the president hasn't produced a plan, you almost sound as critical as the national security strategy as some of your republican colleagues. >> well, this is a late breaking development. looking nobody in the administration contemplated that the iraqi armed forces would just melt away and capitulate as fast as they have. >> shouldn't they have? we were there for ten years. >> we've known about isis but they didn't imagine the security force would capitulate. we were willing to stay and help and they setd no. the fact the that the iraqis cannot govern their own country because of maliki, so you're right, this is a very fast moving situation. and the administration does need to come and lay options on the table. the cl

the sunni-shia divide, of course, exists across the arab world. is it purely a religious divide that we see here in iraq today? >> from the beginning of the creation of iraq, in the modern iraq in the 20s, until 2003, shia sunni divide was not really there. there was totally uninstitutionalized anywhere in the constitution, the law, the practices, et cetera. 2003, purposely, i think, the policy of the occupation of iraq was divisive, because aside from the policy of divide and rule, in fact when the opposition at that time left the current government here in london, everybody was on that one was a shi'ite. only two sunni guys, so the americans went along with that one. they continued to do right the situation in iraq on a sectarian bases. a couple of days ago. senior clerk i of the shiite secretary plus prime minister maliki has called on shy eight to his fight. so it's really getting in to the situation of a sectarian war that's the danger of what is happening. until now it has been the government of maliki has been sectarian in its preach. becau

shias as heretics. it's tricky for westerners to be here, not so much for the old reason, which is danger of kidnapping, as the danger of bombs. they happen almost every day here. there was one last night. they're presumably set by extremist sunnis who are of isis and the aim is to kill as many shia as possible. have the protection here of top leaderse of the meckety army in sadr city, the main volunteer group andraq, large, tough effective. inevitablek it's that iraq will break up into its three main parts. i think iraq will fit into three parts. >> what will make that happen? of iraq isi part being excluded. think itf that, i would be the right decision to separate, stop all this destruction. he's a shrewd observer and big advantages to the shia population if iraq were to break up. might give run, it shia people a lot more security but it's hard to think that in it could possibly happen peacefully. >> tonight, president obama is his national by security team on all the options iraq.ble for action in f

, we know that the top shia clear i can has called on shias to take up arms and defend baghdad? >> reporter: yes, absolutely. we are hearing from ditch sources that the number of volunteers are in the thousands and some of them have already reached samarra to protect the shrine and by the way the mine minister maliki visited the shrine so i think he wants to boost the morale of the people there. this is a sacred shrine for shia muslims as well as soon i muslims, it has a huge sentimental religious value so protecting it from any harm is very unfortunate. if you remember in 2006 al qaeda fighters destroyed the shrine and then sectarian warfare started, sectarian violence that killed tends of thousands of people. the situation in baghdad according to military commanders is relatively calm but everybody is tense. they are taking precautionary measures to protect the capital of baghdad. and when you have the grand iatola of iraq through his representative calling on people to join the army so you can sense there is a huge fear and things could turn really nasty because people fear i

and i don't care if one is sunni or shia, it is not good for iran to enter iraq with its troops. not good for the region, not good for iraq and definitely not good for the sectarian. if it enters that will increase to the war in syria, in lebanon and once and for all we will have an out and out war for sunnies and shias, that is not in the interest of anybody particularly the united states. >> zena thank you for your insight. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >>> iran has already deployed some of its members of the revolutionary guard. helping iraq in another way. iran's president housan rouhani says they are ready to fight for iraq. fought a war that killed more than a million people. >>> to ukraine where the new president has called for a unilateral cease fire. one pro-russian leader reportedly called the proposal absurd. paul brennan reports. >> the prospect of a unilateral gesture comes as a surprise. a warning, this will be a short-lived offer, a limited opportunity for pro-russians to grasp. >> i can say that the period of cease fire will be rather short. we expect that the l

and when the shia took over iraq, it was the first country since about 1170 that a shia was in controlnd so, the way i look at this, this is a fight between the islamic world and essentially the persian world . if you look at the way isis is operating, they've taken that lue yeah and ramadi and came down the euphrates river and now down the tigres and segmenting the country and then essentially the sunnis and the arabic world, if you will, wants control of what they see as theirs. >> the calaphate thing. the break down in borders, proxy wars and more to talk about. we'll be right back. hey you know what man, these guys aint no dragons. they're cool. these deals are legit. yeah, we're cool. she's cool. we're cool. priceline express deals are totally legit. check this, thousands of people book them everyday and score killer deals. now, priceline is piling on even more savings with its summer sale. so grab your giant beach towel and enter code summer14. look at me enjoying the deals. they're the days to take care of business.. when possibilities become reality. with centurylink as your tr

are sunnis joining along with shia in order to try odefeat i.s.i.l? >> well, grand ey ayatollah is l the greatest, are his word will be followed by thousands if not millions. the number now stands at tens of thousands of people. the religious authority in nejef, north of baghdad, where the grand ayatollah some is based, says this is not a call, hope this is not leading to a civil war. they are calling on all iraqis to volunteer and join the government forces to stop the advancement of the rebel forces. however when you speak to the other sects, the sunni community say well this is interpreted perhaps as a sectarian calm because not -- call because not a lot of sunnies will answer that call and join the volunteer call to join the iraqi security forces. >> we have seen tens of thousands of volunteers rushing off, being given new uniforms. is there any structure in place to give them training, to give them weapons, to actually equip them for a battle, against a very battle haireddenned -- artenned and insurgent force? >> that was the concern raised by ma

saddam hussein, we went in there and installed a shia dpom nated country. now the sunnis are finding their way back to power. why wouldn't they? wouldn't we if we were them? is there any reason iraq once we left would not revert back to what they were before? that the people wh had the power before would not try to get it back? was there any belief that we were not creating an ally for shiite-dominated iran, an iran that iran is now in the process of defending. the iranian revolutionary guard to ward off the attack on baghdad by the sunni-dominated insur jepts. finally, why did someone think it was in interest so shift the power as a counterweight to iran as an ally of iran. who is that genius? and if george w. bush was so out of it to embark on this american excursion into insanity in the first place, why is president obama or anyone else knowing now that we've achieved through all these sack fiss nothing, talking about doubling down with still more u.s. military engagement in turbulent messopotamia. iraq is falling apart. today, sunni militants vowed to m

the shia groups are also involved. in the northern town of kirkuk, they say they're preparing for a long battle. >> we urge you to be ready to sacrifice yourself. >> we go live to baghdad, you weris the intent to defend or fight? >> the intent to is defend. and it was, indeed, a show of strength. thousands of people out on the streets. mean in military and police uniforms. others in the uniform of the old army which was disbanded in 2008. also we had brigade of suicide bombers wearing mock suicide belts and people with explosive devices. in the last few moments we heard of an explosive device which exploded in the last few moments, and in another neighborhood about nine people dead and 24 injured which goes to show you despite all of this big show of power baghdad is still under threat. now this is a defensive army. we have scenes where it did look offensive. >> some confusion over who is in control of the own refinery, and at the same time we have the sunni rebels making gains today. >> absolutely right. there have be

of course, here is baghdad and the shia. this is the part, might not be the parti tichlt on that joe biden envisioned when he first floated this out but the self pa partitioning has already taken place. what's going on here in these sunni or isis-controlled areas, what the shias and what maliki is trying to hold up. good luck seeing the kurds come back into the territory. that's why there's this assumption that self partition may be a feta com plea. this idea of the fighting that's heating up, that maliki believes he is fighting a war, not talking about some sort of political peace offering or olive branch in order to get the united states to cooperate with him. self partitioning, will this end up what some in the iraqi public want? >> over the course of the last decade or so, there definitely have been natural fractures that have happened in the iraqi society. the population center has shifted as the government of prime minister nuri al maliki has in the southern part of the country. the reality on the ground is now reflect

when we talk sunni and shia we are talking the arab.urds are identity and they speak kurdish and not a ra bic. >> and so going back to the arab world. 6 billion muslip in the world and who has the majority if you look at the map of the middle east. is there a clear majority party in this and how does that play in to what is happening in iraq? >> in the over all sunnis are the vast majority but shia is substantial. ian is almost 90 percent. and iraq 60 percent. and then in can you watt and saudi arabia. and in the persian. shia would be a majority. >> greg, what is your take away? having studied the groups. you think it makes sense to have the divisions or not? >> i think in terms of the kurds. they form a distinctive unitty in iraq. sunni and shia arabs it would be difficult to devoid. any kind of formal partition would not be stable. >> very interesting, greg. we would love to have you back on the program to talk about the history and specific differences are and perhaps what they are not. thank you very much. >> severe weather in the

they have is a dead shia. it's a course that goes beyond maliki and iraq. this is a broader conflict in the middle east. >> lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle say what's happening should not be a surprise. if it's so obvious, what, if anything, did the obama administration do wrong? >> well i don't think it should be a strategic surprise, but in terms of, you know, what happened, in the last few days with the complete breakdown of the iraqi army. and the onslaught of this group, many times smaller than the army, that, i think, was a surprise to many people. but the basic problem is in syria where there's been absolutely no diplomatic effort and of course no military effort by countries, by western countries, to try to bring that conflict to an end. instead, we've had a lot of arms going in there to various nefarious types. and i think that problem has now metastasized into the region and we're seeing it big time in iraq. >> and, of course, you had our president calling for a red line in that territ

>> it was clear the shia had to leave the government in baghdad gifrns the importance of the shia community and its weight in iraq. maliki emerged as someone people thought perhaps could run the government efficiently and the hope was that he would reach out to the sunnis and kurds, he's not done anything like that. both president bush in his last years in office and president obama in the first term worked very hard to try to convince maliki to open up to the sunni community. remember, the reason why the surge -- president bush's surge succeeded in 2007 and 2008, was we were able to get the support of the sunni war lord and elders to support a reimposition of law and orderer in iraq. that's not the case now. some of those same sunni leaders are joining forces with isis against the government in baghdad. i think maliki is on very thin ice here in his own country and internationally and if he doesn't adjust his policy, they'll be very little support for them and i don't see why the united states would want to intervene through air power without solid assurances through the government that it

when the sit sunnis come through killing shia, they are the same as shia in baghdad.does the united states do? some people say let iran help us. your thoughts? >> i'm with mccain and boehner. i think that -- i think lindsey graham eventually got that. i thought his comments on cnn were convoluted. you don't want it to be easier for the iranians with baghdad. chris, your point is taken. iran has influence in iraq. when we pulled out of there and it made it easier for the iranians to have more influence and what john boehner was saying, our allies, not only israelis saudis. if we good too overboard and cooperate, it drives saudis bonkers. i think it is a very delicate game here. think i john mccain and john boehner have the politics right and the policy right. >> their column today in wall street journal, dick and liz cheney had this to say about iran. quote, in a move that denies ka julity, pushing iran into iraq only a fool would believe american policy in iraq should be a state sponsor of tris ep. the british and french back after world war ii thought they could deci