NAJAF, March 7: A senior member of Iraq's Governing Council said on Sunday agreement had been reached with the country's top Shia cleric on the terms of an interim constitution and the document would be signed on Monday.
"We have reached an agreement. There is going to be very good news very soon," Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, a Shia on the 25-member Council, told reporters after emerging from half an hour of talks with Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who wields huge influence among Iraq's Shias.
"We are going to sign (the interim constitution) on Monday." It was not immediately clear if Rubaie meant that Sistani had accepted the existing wording of the interim constitution, which was agreed to by the Governing Council last week, or if he had worked out changes to the wording with Sistani that would then have to be presented to the rest of the Council.
The interim constitution is crucial to US plans to hand power back to the Iraqis at the end of June. The US-appointed Council was due to sign the constitution last Friday, but at the last minute five Shia members refused to sign after it emerged that Sistani had objections to two key clauses in the document.
One objection referred to a clause that would give the Kurds, who make up about a fifth of Iraq's population, an effective veto over the permanent constitution once it is drawn up after elections next year.
Another involved the make-up of a presidential council. Currently the document calls for the creation of a three-member council, with one president and two deputies.
COALITION HQ ATTACKED: A rocket attack on the US-coalition headquarters in Baghdad late Sunday sent a chilling reminder to Iraq's leaders as they moved closer to signing a long-delayed interim constitution.
Seven rockets were fired at the headquarters, where the signing could take place on Monday, from a makeshift launching pad set up on an of froad vehicle. Three of them hit the al-Rashid hotel, injuring a contractor, and starting a fire, Brigadier General Mark Kimmit said. -Reuters/AFP
