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Iraqi Assembly Agrees to Extend Constitution Deadline by a Week
By DEXTER FILKINS
Published: August 15, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 15 - Still deadlocked after days of negotiations, Iraq's leaders decided today to give themselves another week to agree on a new constitution and resolve a series of fundamental disagreements over the future and identity of this fractious land.
After meeting for several hours inside the protected Green Zone here, a group of senior Iraqi leaders told the National Assembly that they were unable to resolve a number of critical issues, including the role of Islam, the rights of women, the sharing of the country's vast oil wealth and whether to grant the majority Shiites their own semi-independent region in the south.
Minutes before midnight, the leaders of the assembly agreed to amend the country's interim constitution and give themselves until next Monday to strike a deal. There were proclamations of brotherhood and pledges to work together, but the leaders said that ultimately their differences were too vast to bridge today, the previous deadline.
"They need time," Prime Minister Irbahim Jafaari said after the assembly vote. "I think next week will be enough."
In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the constitutional drafters had made "substantial progress" and were addressing the thorniest issues. "We are witnessing democracy at work," Ms. Rice said, saying that the difficulty of the task was not surprising in view of its enormous importance and the Iraqis' struggle to emerge from "decades of tyranny."
Despite the decision to push back the deadline for the constitution, the dates stood unchanged for the nationwide referendum on the new charter, Oct. 15th, and the full-term parliamentary elections, on Dec. 15.
Ms. Rice tried to discourage speculation about any change in the election schedule. "I believe they're going to finish this," she said, referring to the constitution drafters.
The Iraqis failed to break the impasse despite the furious efforts of the American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, who huddled with Iraqi leaders and proposed compromise language throughout the day. The Americans had been keen to have the Iraqis stick to the Aug. 15 deadline, in part because they are concerned that the guerrilla insurgency would take advantage of any stalemate.
As if to underscore the American concerns, a mortar shell, apparently fired by insurgents, exploded just shy of the Green Zone.
The Americans are hoping that progress on the political front will allow them to begin reducing the number of American troops here, as early as next spring.
Before the extension vote, a National Assembly member, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, said today that specific solutions to difficult issues, including federalism and the status of the city of Kirkuk, would be put off for another day.
"There are issues that will be postponed and addressed in a general way," he said.
Asked about the challenges of bringing the Sunni minority on board, Mr. Rubaie said they were making an effort to obtain the best deal possible.
With several questions unresolved, Shiite leaders had earlier said that they were considering asking the National Assembly to approve the document without the agreement of the country's Sunni leaders. Such a move would probably provoke the Sunnis, whose participation in the political process is seen as crucial in the effort to marginalize the Sunni-dominated guerrilla insurgency.
The National Assembly had been scheduled to convene at 6 p.m. to consider the draft. Members were advised that the new starting time was 8 p.m., and then it was delayed again until 10 p.m.
Failure to meet today's deadline and to amend the interim constitution to extend it might have required the dissolving of the National Assembly and new elections. Shiite and Kurdish leaders said late Sunday that they were discussing that possibility, but said that they hoped to avoid it.
"That is the worst option, and we want to avoid it at all costs," said Ali al-Dabbagh, one of the Shiite leaders charged with writing the new constitution.
The negotiations were stalled on a number of issues, including the role of Islam in the state, the rights of women and the distribution of power between central and regional governments. Issues that had seemed to have been settled, like the sharing of oil revenue, also unraveled.
American officials here had been pushing the Iraqis to meet today's deadline, arguing that any delay in the political process, devised to culminate in democratic elections in December, could risk strengthening the insurgency.
The deadlock reflected a lack of consensus on basic questions underlying the nation's identity, a consensus which has largely eluded this country since it was carved from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire after World War I.
The disagreements run almost entirely along ethnic and sectarian lines, reflecting the deep divisions among Iraq's majority Shiites and the Kurdish and Sunni minorities.
The principal unresolved issue is whether to grant to the country's Shiite majority an autonomous region in the south. Shiite leaders are demanding that nine provinces in southern Iraq - half of the provinces in the country - be allowed to form a largely self-governing region akin to the Kurdish autonomous region in the north.
The leaders of Iraq's Sunni population staunchly oppose the Shiite demands, contending that if the Shiites and the Kurds were both granted wide powers of self-rule, there would be little left of the Iraqi state. The issue of Shiite autonomy is especially significant because the richest oil fields are situated in the extreme south of the country.
Indeed, some Sunni leaders say the Shiite demand for self-rule is largely a cover for hoarding the bulk of Iraq's oil revenue. On Sunday, an agreement on sharing oil revenues between the central and regional governments fell apart, with the Shiites demanding more control.
Under prodding from Ambassador Khalilzad, the Shiites agreed to hold off on their demands for regional autonomy, in exchange for a mechanism in the constitution that would allow them to achieve that autonomy later. Under the formula favored by the Shiites, provinces could set up autonomous regions if they secured majority votes of their people, the provincial assemblies and the National Assembly.
But Sunni leaders rejected that proposal, saying it would only slow down, but not significantly hamper, the Shiite drive for self-rule. While accepting Mr. Khalilzad's basic formula, the Sunnis said they would insist on two-thirds majorities in all the voting.
"If we accept federalism, the country will be finished," said Saleh Mutlak, a Sunni leader on the constitutional committee.
Late Sunday, after many hours of negotiating, some Shiite leaders said they were so impatient with what they described as Sunni intransigence that they began to threaten to ram the constitution through the National Assembly without Sunni support.
Theoretically, at least, that was possible. Sunnis constitute only about 20 percent of the population, and they hold virtually none of the seats in the National Assembly, in part because they boycotted national elections in January. If the Shiites and the Kurds united around the proposed constitution, they could probably secure enough votes for its approval in the National Assembly, and in the nationwide constitutional referendum scheduled for Oct. 15.
Under the rules agreed to last year, the Sunnis could defeat the constitution, but only if they could muster a two-thirds majority voting against it in 3 of Iraq's 18 provinces. The Sunnis are believed to constitute a majority in three provinces, but some Shiite leaders said they were untroubled by the prospect of a Sunni veto.
"The Sunnis have to find a two-thirds majority, and they can't," said Sami al-Askary, a Shiite member of the constitutional committee.
Pushing the constitution through without the Sunnis, though, would almost certainly bring a Sunni reaction. Sunni leaders suggested that they could back out of the political process altogether, raising the prospect of a Sunni boycott of the Oct. 15 referendum and the Dec. 15 elections.
American leaders fear that failing to bring the Sunnis along into the political process would only further intensify the insurgency, which is already attacking American forces an average of 65 times a day here.
As the Aug. 15 deadline approached, it was difficult to differentiate between credible threats and high-stakes bargaining. There were suggestions, for instance, that the Shiite leadership itself was not unified on the federalism question. One of the Shiite leaders, Abdul Aziz Hakim, the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic revolution in Iraq, who was expected to attend a meeting of the top political leaders on Sunday night, surprised many when he failed to show up.
Among the other questions still unresolved are the role of Islam in the state, including a proposal by the Shiites to include a political role for the Shiite religious leadership in Najaf. The power granted to Islam in the new constitution could affect the rights of women, particularly if Islamic law is allowed to govern marriage and family disputes.
Iraqi leaders have still reached no agreement on the city of Kirkuk, which is divided among three ethnic groups but claimed by the Kurdish regional government. The Kurds are pushing for a timeline to reverse decades of Saddam Hussein's "Arabization" policy that would require the repatriation of tens of thousands of people.
Beyond the precincts of the Green Zone, the propaganda war continued. In a statement posted on the internet, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia warned the Sunni clerics against urging their faithful to take part in the referendum on the constitution. The warning appears to be a reaction to the fact that many Sunni preachers, in contrast to the elections in January, are urging Sunnis to vote this time.
"Be informed that this conspiracy is to get America out of the logjam that it fell into," the statement reads. "We in the Al Qaeda organization will manifest the backsliding of all who call for the writing of the constitution and arbitrating on other than God's laws."
By DEXTER FILKINS
Published: August 15, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 15 - Still deadlocked after days of negotiations, Iraq's leaders decided today to give themselves another week to agree on a new constitution and resolve a series of fundamental disagreements over the future and identity of this fractious land.
After meeting for several hours inside the protected Green Zone here, a group of senior Iraqi leaders told the National Assembly that they were unable to resolve a number of critical issues, including the role of Islam, the rights of women, the sharing of the country's vast oil wealth and whether to grant the majority Shiites their own semi-independent region in the south.
Minutes before midnight, the leaders of the assembly agreed to amend the country's interim constitution and give themselves until next Monday to strike a deal. There were proclamations of brotherhood and pledges to work together, but the leaders said that ultimately their differences were too vast to bridge today, the previous deadline.
"They need time," Prime Minister Irbahim Jafaari said after the assembly vote. "I think next week will be enough."
In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the constitutional drafters had made "substantial progress" and were addressing the thorniest issues. "We are witnessing democracy at work," Ms. Rice said, saying that the difficulty of the task was not surprising in view of its enormous importance and the Iraqis' struggle to emerge from "decades of tyranny."
Despite the decision to push back the deadline for the constitution, the dates stood unchanged for the nationwide referendum on the new charter, Oct. 15th, and the full-term parliamentary elections, on Dec. 15.
Ms. Rice tried to discourage speculation about any change in the election schedule. "I believe they're going to finish this," she said, referring to the constitution drafters.
The Iraqis failed to break the impasse despite the furious efforts of the American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, who huddled with Iraqi leaders and proposed compromise language throughout the day. The Americans had been keen to have the Iraqis stick to the Aug. 15 deadline, in part because they are concerned that the guerrilla insurgency would take advantage of any stalemate.
As if to underscore the American concerns, a mortar shell, apparently fired by insurgents, exploded just shy of the Green Zone.
The Americans are hoping that progress on the political front will allow them to begin reducing the number of American troops here, as early as next spring.
Before the extension vote, a National Assembly member, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, said today that specific solutions to difficult issues, including federalism and the status of the city of Kirkuk, would be put off for another day.
"There are issues that will be postponed and addressed in a general way," he said.
Asked about the challenges of bringing the Sunni minority on board, Mr. Rubaie said they were making an effort to obtain the best deal possible.
With several questions unresolved, Shiite leaders had earlier said that they were considering asking the National Assembly to approve the document without the agreement of the country's Sunni leaders. Such a move would probably provoke the Sunnis, whose participation in the political process is seen as crucial in the effort to marginalize the Sunni-dominated guerrilla insurgency.
The National Assembly had been scheduled to convene at 6 p.m. to consider the draft. Members were advised that the new starting time was 8 p.m., and then it was delayed again until 10 p.m.
Failure to meet today's deadline and to amend the interim constitution to extend it might have required the dissolving of the National Assembly and new elections. Shiite and Kurdish leaders said late Sunday that they were discussing that possibility, but said that they hoped to avoid it.
"That is the worst option, and we want to avoid it at all costs," said Ali al-Dabbagh, one of the Shiite leaders charged with writing the new constitution.
The negotiations were stalled on a number of issues, including the role of Islam in the state, the rights of women and the distribution of power between central and regional governments. Issues that had seemed to have been settled, like the sharing of oil revenue, also unraveled.
American officials here had been pushing the Iraqis to meet today's deadline, arguing that any delay in the political process, devised to culminate in democratic elections in December, could risk strengthening the insurgency.
The deadlock reflected a lack of consensus on basic questions underlying the nation's identity, a consensus which has largely eluded this country since it was carved from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire after World War I.
The disagreements run almost entirely along ethnic and sectarian lines, reflecting the deep divisions among Iraq's majority Shiites and the Kurdish and Sunni minorities.
The principal unresolved issue is whether to grant to the country's Shiite majority an autonomous region in the south. Shiite leaders are demanding that nine provinces in southern Iraq - half of the provinces in the country - be allowed to form a largely self-governing region akin to the Kurdish autonomous region in the north.
The leaders of Iraq's Sunni population staunchly oppose the Shiite demands, contending that if the Shiites and the Kurds were both granted wide powers of self-rule, there would be little left of the Iraqi state. The issue of Shiite autonomy is especially significant because the richest oil fields are situated in the extreme south of the country.
Indeed, some Sunni leaders say the Shiite demand for self-rule is largely a cover for hoarding the bulk of Iraq's oil revenue. On Sunday, an agreement on sharing oil revenues between the central and regional governments fell apart, with the Shiites demanding more control.
Under prodding from Ambassador Khalilzad, the Shiites agreed to hold off on their demands for regional autonomy, in exchange for a mechanism in the constitution that would allow them to achieve that autonomy later. Under the formula favored by the Shiites, provinces could set up autonomous regions if they secured majority votes of their people, the provincial assemblies and the National Assembly.
But Sunni leaders rejected that proposal, saying it would only slow down, but not significantly hamper, the Shiite drive for self-rule. While accepting Mr. Khalilzad's basic formula, the Sunnis said they would insist on two-thirds majorities in all the voting.
"If we accept federalism, the country will be finished," said Saleh Mutlak, a Sunni leader on the constitutional committee.
Late Sunday, after many hours of negotiating, some Shiite leaders said they were so impatient with what they described as Sunni intransigence that they began to threaten to ram the constitution through the National Assembly without Sunni support.
Theoretically, at least, that was possible. Sunnis constitute only about 20 percent of the population, and they hold virtually none of the seats in the National Assembly, in part because they boycotted national elections in January. If the Shiites and the Kurds united around the proposed constitution, they could probably secure enough votes for its approval in the National Assembly, and in the nationwide constitutional referendum scheduled for Oct. 15.
Under the rules agreed to last year, the Sunnis could defeat the constitution, but only if they could muster a two-thirds majority voting against it in 3 of Iraq's 18 provinces. The Sunnis are believed to constitute a majority in three provinces, but some Shiite leaders said they were untroubled by the prospect of a Sunni veto.
"The Sunnis have to find a two-thirds majority, and they can't," said Sami al-Askary, a Shiite member of the constitutional committee.
Pushing the constitution through without the Sunnis, though, would almost certainly bring a Sunni reaction. Sunni leaders suggested that they could back out of the political process altogether, raising the prospect of a Sunni boycott of the Oct. 15 referendum and the Dec. 15 elections.
American leaders fear that failing to bring the Sunnis along into the political process would only further intensify the insurgency, which is already attacking American forces an average of 65 times a day here.
As the Aug. 15 deadline approached, it was difficult to differentiate between credible threats and high-stakes bargaining. There were suggestions, for instance, that the Shiite leadership itself was not unified on the federalism question. One of the Shiite leaders, Abdul Aziz Hakim, the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic revolution in Iraq, who was expected to attend a meeting of the top political leaders on Sunday night, surprised many when he failed to show up.
Among the other questions still unresolved are the role of Islam in the state, including a proposal by the Shiites to include a political role for the Shiite religious leadership in Najaf. The power granted to Islam in the new constitution could affect the rights of women, particularly if Islamic law is allowed to govern marriage and family disputes.
Iraqi leaders have still reached no agreement on the city of Kirkuk, which is divided among three ethnic groups but claimed by the Kurdish regional government. The Kurds are pushing for a timeline to reverse decades of Saddam Hussein's "Arabization" policy that would require the repatriation of tens of thousands of people.
Beyond the precincts of the Green Zone, the propaganda war continued. In a statement posted on the internet, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia warned the Sunni clerics against urging their faithful to take part in the referendum on the constitution. The warning appears to be a reaction to the fact that many Sunni preachers, in contrast to the elections in January, are urging Sunnis to vote this time.
"Be informed that this conspiracy is to get America out of the logjam that it fell into," the statement reads. "We in the Al Qaeda organization will manifest the backsliding of all who call for the writing of the constitution and arbitrating on other than God's laws."
I am sure in the mind of the Bushies it always made sense to force the Iraqis to rush a compromise on the very existential issues of an Iraq. I mean, deadlines are EVIL AND WRONG when it comes to troop deployments, but when it comes out to writing a constitution...I mean, its just a piece of paper after all.....
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