Minority Sunni Arab political leaders in Iraq have formed a team to negotiate the text of a new constitution but, with a mid-August deadline pressing, full talks may be delayed, by a water shortage in Baghdad.
A Sunni spokesman and senior member of the parliamentary drafting body said today the Sunni team had been named and accepted by the mainly Shi'ite and Kurdish lawmakers. But a week's parliamentary recess caused by a lack of water and air-conditioning could delay full talks until at least Tuesday.
Low Sunni turnout at January's election left the minority that dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein almost without representation on the parliamentary committee which aims to propose a new text by August 15, ahead of an October referendum.
Now 15 Sunnis from outside parliament have been named to an expanded constitutional drafting committee of 70 members, on which Sunnis will have 17 seats.
But these and 10 further Sunni “consultants” are waiting for approval from a session of the National Assembly before joining negotiations, Imad Mohammed Ali, a spokesman for the Sunni Gathering said.
“The National Assembly should now issue a statement welcoming the participation of those who didn't take part in the elections so that they start taking part in the constitutional committee,” he said.
The delay comes as the United States, European Union and others, at a conference in Brussels, threw their weight behind Iraqi government efforts to include Sunnis in the political process, despite the violent insurgency among some Sunni Arabs.
“At last, Robert Tarongoy is going home after a long time,“ Arroyo said after a Catholic mass in the central city of Cebu.