Iraq's interior minister warned Tuesday that if the country's Sunni Arab minority bows to rebel threats and stays away from the polls on the Jan. 30 election the nation could descend into civil war. Falah Hassan al-Naqib, who is himself a Sunni, told reporters he expects Sunni insurgents to escalate attacks in the run-up to the election, especially in the Baghdad area. Voters are to choose a new 275-member National Assembly. "If any group does not participate in the elections, it will constitute treason," al-Naqib said. He added that "boycotting the elections will not produce a National Assembly that represents the Iraqi people." If that happens, he added, the Iraqi people "will enter into a civil war that will divide the country."
