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Wrangling Not Yet Over on Iraqi Charter
A Shiite member of Iraq's National Assembly visits an exhibition that supports the draft constitution, to be voted on in a referendum on Oct. 15. Many Sunni Arabs, so far dissatisfied by the draft, have rallied to get out the "no" vote.
(By Wathiq Khuzaie -- Getty Images)
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One of the Sunni demands for the charter would restore a dropped phrase that Iraq "should not be divided for any reason," Janabi said.
Two other demands stipulate that Iraq's oil and other resources should be under central management and that a decision on Iraq's future form of government should be made by a two-thirds majority of the next parliament. Sunnis largely stayed home during January elections of the current interim parliament but are expected to turn out in force for the next parliamentary elections in December.
A further Sunni demand would remove a phrase in the draft equating the former Baath Party to a terrorist group and would add a declaration that Iraq is "part of the Arab and Islamic nations." The final demand deals with conditions for citizenship.
Debagh said that Shiites would accept no changes on federalism but that they were considering at least four of the points.
"We have no objection to changes that help us to achieve mutual understanding, but there is no way that we would agree to change the basic principles of the constitution," he said.
In Najaf, the Shiite holy city, an aide to Moqtada Sadr said the influential Shiite cleric was monitoring the last-minute negotiations. Mustafa Yaqoubi said Sadr would wait until the week before the vote to announce his opinion on the charter, instructing his many followers how to vote.
Sadr is seen as sympathetic to the Sunni cause, although his statements regarding federalism have been guarded. His freeing of followers to vote as they wished helped make Shiite religious parties the biggest winners in the January vote.
Defeating the draft charter, under Iraq's interim constitution, would require a "no" vote by two-thirds majorities in at least three provinces. Sunnis have rallied to get out the "no" vote in the west and Baghdad, but the Shiite- and Kurdish-led interim parliament raised the bar by changing the requirement for defeat to a two-thirds "no" vote by registered voters.
The run-up to the negotiations is playing out during weeks of intensifying U.S. military action against insurgents in the west and growing insurgent attacks across the country.
Near the Syrian border, 1,000 U.S. troops kept up a three-day-old offensive that has killed at least three dozen suspected insurgents in Euphrates River towns dominated by foreign fighters and Iraqi insurgents, the U.S. military said.
The military on Monday reported the death of a U.S. soldier hit by indirect fire -- meaning either mortar rounds or rockets -- in the western city of Ramadi.
Insurgent attacks Monday included a roadside bomb in Baghdad that hit the convoy of Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr Uloum. Three of his bodyguards were killed, authorities said.
Wright reported from Washington. Correspondent Ellen Knickmeyer and special correspondent Bassam Sebti in Baghdad and special correspondent Saad Sarhan in Najaf contributed to this report.
