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Iraqi
president meets with political leaders as talks continue on the
new constitution. (Reuters)
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BAGHDAD,
August 22, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Decrying
marginalization throughout the marathon talks to draft Iraq’s
permanent constitution, the 15 Arab Sunnis taking part in the mammoth
task have urged the United States and the United Nations to curb
Shiite and Kurdish hegemony.
"At
a time when there are few hours left to announce the draft, we still
see no active coordination and seriousness to draft the
constitution," the Sunni bloc said in a statement Sunday, August
22, a copy of which was obtained by the Associated Press (AP).
After
missing the original August 15 deadline to submit the country's first
post- Saddam Hussein charter to parliament, Iraqi leaders secured an
extension allowing them to postpone an agreement until midnight
Monday, August 22.
Sunni
Arabs told AP they were only invited to a single meeting with the
other community negotiators since last Monday, August 15. That session
was held Friday, August 19.
They
warned the United States and the world body that sidelining the Sunnis
"would make the current crisis more complicated."
Shiites
and Kurds have enough seats in parliament to push through a draft even
without the Sunnis because so many Sunni Arabs boycotted the Jan. 30
elections and consequently won only 17 seats in the country's
275-member National Assembly.
Under
the terms of interim legislation, the constitution fails if two-thirds
of the voters in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces reject the text in
the referendum.
The
Sunnis form a majority in Al-Anbar, Tamim and Salaheddin provinces.
2nd
Deadline Looming
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"Federalism
is the absolute minimum the people of Iraqi Kurdistan will
accept," said Qubad.
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The
Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), an interim constitution drawn
up under US occupation in 2004, called for the interim legislature to
be dissolved and elections by December for a new constitution-drafting
body if no draft permanent constitution was ready by the previous
August 15 deadline.
Iraqi
leaders were locked in last-minute talks Monday to resolve thorny
issues dogging the drafting of the constitution just hours before the
extended deadline to complete the charter expires.
"Intense
meeting between all the groups has started and hopefully we may arrive
at an agreement before the deadline expires," Kurdish negotiator
Mahmud Othman told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Monday.
But
sharp differences remain on issues including a federal structure for
Iraq, the role of Islam and the sharing of national oil wealth,
raising the prospect of another parliamentary vote to extend for a
fresh date.
In
a sign a last-minute breakthrough may be a far-fetched dream, a
high-level Kurdish representative in the United States warned Monday
that Kurds will not back down from their demand for turning Iraq into
a federal state, and the ethnic group has already made all the
concessions it could.
"Federalism
is the absolute minimum the people of Iraqi Kurdistan will
accept," Qubad Talabani, representative of the Kurdistan Regional
Government in the United States and son of Iraqi President Jalal
Talabani, wrote in The Wall Street Journal.
"Certainly,
none should expect Kurds to reverse the progress that we have made in
setting up functioning institutions such as the Kurdistan Regional
Government and the elected Kurdistan National Assembly," the
envoy pointed out.
Iraqi
Sunnis were particularly opposed to making Iraq a federal state,
warning it could lead to a breakup of the country.
The
hassle has raised the possibility that Iraq may once again seek an
extension to the deadline.
"If
the text is not handed to the national assembly by the deadline ...
one choice is to ask for another one-week extension or the other is to
dissolve the parliament," Leith Kubba, spokesman for Prime
Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, told reporters Sunday.
However,
he also told CNN that an incomplete constitution could be presented to
parliament.
