IRAQ: Drafters of a new constitution have summoned leaders of Iraqi religious, ethnic and political blocs to an emergency national summit in an attempt to thrash out the toughest issues in reshaping the country, US and Iraqi officials have confirmed.
US officials in Washington said the gathering would take place today and tomorrow if enough agree.
Humam Hamoudi, chairman of the constitution-writing committee, called for the forum, and US officials said the aim was to bring in leaders from outside the committee, particularly Sunni Arabs. He also said committee members would meet on August 1st to decide whether to ask for a six-month extension. This would push back the entire process by six months, meaning elections currently pencilled in for the end of the year would not happen until mid-2006.
Sunni Arab delegates returned to the committee meetings on Tuesday after a week-long boycott. But it remained clear that the major divisive issue was federalism, which Sunni participants charge would break up the country.
Progress toward an August 15th deadline for completing a constitutional draft is seen as essential by the interim government and its US backers. A credible draft is considered equally vital to convince the Sunni Arab minority that there has been progress in a country racked by common crime and chronic shortages. Many insurgent fighters are recruited among disaffected Sunnis.
The draft is expected to be delivered to the National Assembly shortly after the August 15th deadline.
The attempt to draw in new participants was intended to add impetus to the process, officials said. "There is a notion that they can get it done by August 15th, so there is a big push to have big leaders involved so there is no posturing inside the constitutional committee to make life difficult," said a senior Iraqi official familiar with the talks.
In Washington, a State Department official said Massoud Barzani, the Kurdistan regional president and political leader, who seldom leaves his northern stronghold, "is coming down from the mountains" for the meeting in Baghdad.
Committee delegates on Tuesday established an 18-member subcommittee assigned to work out major unresolved issues, chiefly federalism, said Saad Jawad Qandeel, a Shia committee member. Kurds are pushing for federalism as the only acceptable system for their already autonomous north. Some in the Shia majority also want the same rights for the heavily Shia south. Sunnis, who governed until the 2003 US invasion, reject such a provision.
Sunni delegates on Tuesday flatly reject a southern Shia federal region. They proposed putting off the federal question until some months after the constitution is approved, said Salih Mutlaq, a leading Sunni on the committee.