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Foreign diplomats press Iraq talks

Foreign diplomats press Iraq talks

BAGHDAD – US, British and UN diplomats pressed Iraqi leaders in their make-or-break negotiations over a constitution yesterday, determined to get a draft finalised by the new August 22 deadline.

In Ramadi, west of Baghdad, gunmen opened fire with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades on a mosque where the governor of the province was meeting senior Sunni Muslim clerics, witnesses said, adding that there were casualties. North of Baghdad, four US troops were killed by a roadside bomb, raising the US death toll to more than 1 850 since the war in Iraq began.Insurgents appear to have developed more powerful bombs capable of piercing newly-armoured US vehicles.Talks over the constitution, which broke down before the previous deadline on Monday, prompting an extraordinary session of parliament to amend the law and allow a week longer, remained divided over three fundamental issues – federalism, the role of Islam and the distribution of revenue from natural resources.Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of the committee drawing up the document, said talks were progressing and that he expected an agreement would be achieved by August 22, although he said he was not certain it would be signed by minority Sunni Arabs.”I think there will be some sort of agreement by the deadline but the question mark is the Sunni Arabs,” he said.”Everyone wants them to be involved, but I’m not sure that they will come around.I’m not sure it will include them.”The Sunnis, dominant under Saddam Hussein and for centuries before, strongly oppose a recent proposal by Shi’ite Arabs to create a federal region in the south of Iraq, mirroring the autonomous zone Kurds have enjoyed in the north since 1991.They worry that they will be left as a minority in the centre of the country, where there is no oil.The oil fields are in the far south and in northern areas claimed by the Kurds.Othman and others locked in the talks taking place inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone said US, British and UN diplomats were playing a prominent role, cajoling the parties along and meeting with negotiators on the side.”Sometimes it seems it is even more important to them that we get a deal.They are concerned, and very active,” Othman told Reuters.”If there’s no success, it affects them as well.I think they are almost more concerned than we are.”Saleh al-Mutlak, one of the main Sunni Arab negotiators, said he and others from his camp had met with the British and US ambassadors to discuss the issue of federalism and would shortly sit down with the Shi’ites and Kurds to haggle further.”There are several points disagreed on, and I expect we will find a compromise,” Mutlak told Reuters.Some Shi’ite and Kurdish negotiators have suggested that if Sunnis cannot be brought on board by the deadline, they may present a complete draft to Iraq’s National Assembly anyway, knowing they have enough support in parliament to get it passed by the required majority.Such a move could prove dangerous, however, since one of the hoped-for benefits of the constitution was that it would drain support for the Sunni insurgency by showing that Sunnis could be involved in a peaceful political process.- Nampa-ReutersNorth of Baghdad, four US troops were killed by a roadside bomb, raising the US death toll to more than 1 850 since the war in Iraq began.Insurgents appear to have developed more powerful bombs capable of piercing newly-armoured US vehicles.Talks over the constitution, which broke down before the previous deadline on Monday, prompting an extraordinary session of parliament to amend the law and allow a week longer, remained divided over three fundamental issues – federalism, the role of Islam and the distribution of revenue from natural resources.Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of the committee drawing up the document, said talks were progressing and that he expected an agreement would be achieved by August 22, although he said he was not certain it would be signed by minority Sunni Arabs.”I think there will be some sort of agreement by the deadline but the question mark is the Sunni Arabs,” he said.”Everyone wants them to be involved, but I’m not sure that they will come around.I’m not sure it will include them.”The Sunnis, dominant under Saddam Hussein and for centuries before, strongly oppose a recent proposal by Shi’ite Arabs to create a federal region in the south of Iraq, mirroring the autonomous zone Kurds have enjoyed in the north since 1991.They worry that they will be left as a minority in the centre of the country, where there is no oil.The oil fields are in the far south and in northern areas claimed by the Kurds.Othman and others locked in the talks taking place inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone said US, British and UN diplomats were playing a prominent role, cajoling the parties along and meeting with negotiators on the side.”Sometimes it seems it is even more important to them that we get a deal.They are concerned, and very active,” Othman told Reuters.”If there’s no success, it affects them as well.I think they are almost more concerned than we are.”Saleh al-Mutlak, one of the main Sunni Arab negotiators, said he and others from his camp had met with the British and US ambassadors to discuss the issue of federalism and would shortly sit down with the Shi’ites and Kurds to haggle further.”There are several points disagreed on, and I expect we will find a compromise,” Mutlak told Reuters.Some Shi’ite and Kurdish negotiators have suggested that if Sunnis cannot be brought on board by the deadline, they may present a complete draft to Iraq’s National Assembly anyway, knowing they have enough support in parliament to get it passed by the required majority.Such a move could prove dangerous, however, since one of the hoped-for benefits of the constitution was that it would drain support for the Sunni insurgency by showing that Sunnis could be involved in a peaceful political process. – Nampa-Reuters

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