Baghdad, Iraq – Iraqi lawmakers failed to meet their self- imposed deadline Thursday night to approve a draft constitution, deferring a decision yet again as negotiations to win approval from Sunni representatives remained deadlocked.
The delay increased the possibility that Shiite and Kurdish leaders will abandon hopes for consensus and simply send the draft to a national referendum without a vote of approval from the transitional National Assembly.
“We needed one more day to reach a result that will, God willing, please everyone,” said National Assembly Speaker Hajim al-Hassani, speaking at the Baghdad Convention Center shortly after midnight. “We do not draft a constitution every now and then, nor even every year, but rather, this constitution might be drafted every hundred years. Therefore, the issue really deserves for us to dedicate the time it requires.”
The failure to meet the deadline marked the third time that Iraqi leaders have postponed a decision on the draft charter, originally due Aug. 15.
The new delay is just the latest sign that differences between the Sunni Arabs, Iraq’s former ruling minority, and the Shiite-Kurdish coalition may be irreconcilable.
A national referendum is due to be held Oct. 15 on the constitution, which requires majority approval but would fail if at least two-thirds of the electorate in three of Iraq’s 18 provinces vote “no.”
Sunnis dominate two provinces and make up a significant portion of the population in two others.
According to participants, the main sticking point is a Sunni refusal to accept the Shiite desire for a semi-independent region in the Shiite-dominated, oil-rich south.
Sunni representatives have bitterly resisted the Shiite push for southern autonomy, fearing it would create an oil-rich southern super-state independent of Baghdad.
Sunni and Shiite negotiators have traded counteroffers in recent days, with the Sunnis asking that the issue of southern autonomy be decided by the National Assembly or in the upcoming referendum.
They also want to remove language condemning the Baath Party and Saddam Hussein, whose Sunni-dominated government long oppressed Iraq’s Shiite and Kurdish communities.
Both issues, participants say, are deal-breakers for the Shiites.
Moreover, the National Assembly has not even met since Aug. 15.
Ali Dabbagh, a Shiite member of the committee charged with drafting the document, said language which states that the Baath Party “under any name … will not be allowed to be part of the multilateral political system in Iraq” is a core Shiite demand.
He predicted it would ultimately be impossible to please all sides.
“Compromise does not mean unanimity,” Dabbagh said.
Kurds, meanwhile, having struck a deal with the Shiites on issues including the distribution of oil revenue, have been playing the role of observer and broker to what has become largely a Sunni-Shiite dispute.
The Kurds have held de facto autonomy for more than a decade over provinces in northern Iraq. “They don’t have a dog in this fight,” said a source close to the negotiations. “They’re happy with the agreement as is.”
Thursday’s talks at the Green Zone residence of Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani broke down around 10 p.m. when Sunni negotiators walked out, according to participants.
The Sunnis had been waiting for the powerful Shiite parliamentary bloc to present a counterproposal on federalism but left when the top Shiite leaders didn’t show.
“What negotiations? There were no negotiations,” said Iyad Samaraie, a senior Sunni negotiator.
U.S. officials have lobbied for a draft constitution acceptable to Sunnis; the faction is underrepresented in the current government, in part because Sunnis boycotted the national elections in January. The latest delays, according to participants, are largely the result of U.S. pressure on Shiite and Kurds to bring the Sunnis on board.
Coaxing leery Sunnis, whose ranks feed the ongoing insurgency, into the political process is a cornerstone of the U.S. exit strategy from Iraq.
The Bush administration fears that a Shiite-Kurd power play would further alienate the already marginalized Sunni Arab population, drive more Sunnis toward the insurgency and ultimately extend the unpopular presence of more than 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
With the other groups looking increasingly likely to proceed without that approval, Sunni representatives are openly lobbying to dissolve the government and hold new elections.
“This draft is born dead,” said Kamal Hamdoun, a Sunni member of the constitutional committee, claiming that the National Assembly invalidated itself by accepting an incomplete draft constitution on Monday.
