The Kurdish and Arab Shia religious parties sought a very weak central government in Baghdad, the latter because they feared a return to Sunni minority rule. The Sunni Arab parties initially rejected any notion of a confederated state, but in time they came to believe that the Shia parties would never share power voluntarily.
库尔德人和阿拉伯什叶派宗教人士希望在巴格达建立弱势的​​中央政府，什叶派这样做是因为害怕逊尼少数派重新执政。逊尼派阿拉伯政党起初不愿接受任何邦联国家理念，但随着时间推移，他们开始相信什叶派政党永远不会自愿分权。正是这种争夺控制权的斗争造成了持续不断的暴力循环。