BAGHDAD, Aug 22: Iraqi Shia and Kurdish negotiators on Monday finally agreed upon a draft constitution after weeks of tortuous talks and said they would present it to parliament regardless of whether the Sunnis agreed or not.
“An agreement between the Shias and the Kurds (the two main parliamentary blocs) has been reached,” Shia negotiator Jawad al Maliki said.
“The agreed-upon draft will be presented shortly... in the national assembly... and it will pass,” he told a hastily organized press conference.
Although the agreement appears to have been thrashed out over the heads of the Sunnis, the Kurds and Shias between them have enough seats in parliament — 215 out of 275 — to have the constitution approved with a majority.
Negotiations on the charter, a key stage in Iraq’s political transition following the toppling of Saddam Hussein in April 2003, have been dogged by differences over the role of Islam, federalism and the sharing of oil wealth.
The US had been pressuring Iraqis to agree on the charter after missing a previous Aug 15 deadline, hoping that its approval will help stem the raging resistance and pave the way for a withdrawal of foreign troops.
Government spokesman Leith Kubba said Sunni negotiators had still not agreed to the draft.
And Sunni panelist Saleh al Motlag told CNN: “If the document does not have consensus it is illegal.
“The document does not have Sunni voice in it... it does not have the voice of Iraq.” Mr Motlag said the Sunnis could yet torpedo the whole agreement if their community resoundingly rejects the constitution.
The Sunnis are a majority in Al Anbar, Nineveh and Salaheddin provinces and Iraq’s interim law stipulates that the draft fails if two-thirds of any three provinces vote against it during the referendum.
Mr Maliki however said the two groups had managed to win support from some of the disenchanted Sunnis in favour of the draft.—AFP
