Sunnis pressured to OK Iraq constitution
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-08-14 11:58

Talabani told reporters that negotiations were concentrating on the question of whether to transform Iraq into a federal system and the role of Islam. Sunnis have accepted the 14-year-old Kurdish self-ruled area in the north but do not want to see the system repeated elsewhere.

"We have gone forward," Talabani said. "There is a meeting today and another meeting tomorrow and God willing we will finish the job tomorrow" — one day ahead of the deadline for parliament to approve the charter.

Negotiations were thrown into a tailspin Thursday when the leader of the biggest Shiite party, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, called for a Shiite autonomous government in central and southern Iraq, including the southern oil fields. That enraged Sunni Arab delegates, who fear federalism will lead to the disintegration of Iraq.

Hamdoun said the Sunnis did not consider themselves bound by an agreements worked out between the Shiites and Kurds. He said the Sunni Arabs were under "Iraqi and non-Iraqi pressure" but "we are not affected by pressure."

Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish parliamentarian and member of the committee drafting the constitution, said the Shiites and Kurds had reached a number of agreements and were working to persuade the Sunnis to join them.

But, he cautioned, "if the Sunnis refuse to accept the agreements, we will present the draft as it is to the National Assembly."

That strategy could backfire, however, in the Oct. 15 referendum when voters will be asked to ratify the constitution. According to the country's interim charter, the constitution will be void if it is rejected by two-thirds of voters in three of the 18 provinces. Sunni Arabs are a majority in four.

Sunni Arabs were to meet Sunday with members of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's secular party and the Shiites would confer with Kurds, Iraqi officials said, adding that Khalilzad was expected to attend both sessions.

Othman said Kurds and Shiites had agreed that Islam would be recognized as the official religion but the question remained about "whether Islam will be the main source or a source of legislation in the constitution."

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